


The Missing Piece

by Oliver_Shadow_21



Category: Alternative Universe- Medieval - Fandom, Fantasy - Fandom, Medieval - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Castles, Curses, Darkness, Dragons, Knights - Freeform, M/M, Medieval, Pirates, Princes, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 18:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 21
Words: 38,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13464255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oliver_Shadow_21/pseuds/Oliver_Shadow_21
Summary: When the world is collapsing right before everyone’s eyes, one unlikely knight tries to bring home the piece (or Prince) that could hopefully fix it.





	1. Chapter 1

7 days, technically a week, to find the royal prince of Cardiff. Sounds like an easy task, right? Not when there’s a ticking time bomb in your chest, literally! That’s what Knight Nicholas (well... just Nick) Kendall was facing. Why did he put himself into this situation you might ask. He didn’t. Yes, it sounds like a suicide mission but Nick knew what he was up against when he “signed up” to save the prince. No one else would’ve done it of course, so Nick might as well give it a try. It was now or nothing. 

But now that he was out of the mainlands of Cardiff, Nick was already regretting it. What if there was no prince at all and it was a trick to just kill off another civilian (if Nick could really call himself that). Nevertheless, he knew what he got into. 

One thought that stuck with him the whole way there was, was this really worth it? He already knew that he was doomed for life, thanks to his damned family tree. But maybe this will change it for better? Who knows.

Nick tightened his grip on the rope of his horse, Ligero. _What a damned fool you are for doing this. Risking your cursed life for someone so..._ it was difficult to find the right word to describe someone that he’s never met.

Ligero suddenly stopped, causing Nick’s thoughts come to an end for now. As he glanced up to see what was ahead, unfortunetly it wasn’t anything. Just a lot of burned, dead forestry. Nick wondered if they had the same burden curse that he held within him. Shaking his head and a deep sigh, Nick moved his horse forward even though it was hard to look at the image before them. 

“By this time, all of Cardiff will eventually be gone.” Nick whispered to himself.

Steady and slowly, Ligero continued to stroll through the muddy path, but Nick could feel chills go through his spine. He knew what dangers were around, so he was high alerted the whole time. But nothing came forth, nothinf was around. Nick had to take a deep breath. _‘Just focus...’_ he kept telling himself. But before the steed could take another step, the ground started to rumble. Nick’s eyes shot open, noticing that the ground was cracking, with a bright orange seeping through. The heat came instantly as Ligero screamed, making him jump onto his hind legs. 

Trying to keep his horse steady, Nick trashed onto the rope to make Ligero quickly jolt and sprint forward. Nick’s heart was pumping at the same time as Ligero’s hooves made contact with the ground. This was a problem, Nick needed to calm down at this rate but the moment he saw a spark of lava spirt out from the ground, his heart lurched, making him suddenly gasp in pain. But as he tried to continue to look out in front of him, more lava was sprinting out spontaneously. Luckily, Ligero tried to avoid them, just dodging the sudden bursts. Nick’s heart wasn’t slowing down, probably caused by that damned curse. He could feel his chest burn inside of him, probably the same burning from the lava.

Regardless, Nick pushed Ligero faster to try to get out of this collapsing trap. But it felt like it would never end as they continued to spring forward. Ahead of them, Nick could see that the ground was once around them has vanished into the lava underneath. The heat rising up started to make Nick sweat on his face, or was it from his nerves getting to him? Shaking his head, Nick tried to refocuse but it was even harder since steam was fogging up the area in front of them now. Cleanching his teeth to hopefully not breathe in the smoke, Nick eagerly made Ligero run faster. But Ligero suddenly rose upon his hind legs, making Nick grip onto the rope more tightly so he wouldn’t loose balance. 

Ligero was franticly running around the broken ground at this point, unsure where to go, since there was so much smoke in the air. Nick tried to steer his horse into the right direction but which direction was right at this point in the middle of a smoke cloud? With his rapid breathing, mixed with the coughing Nick wondered if he’ll ever get out. But then, out of nowhere again, Ligero let out a shriek as they stopped suddenly, flinging his rider out of the sattle and forward onto the ground. As he rolled onto the burning ground, Nick could feel fire strike onto him. Catching his breath, he looked up to see where or if his steed made it. To his shock, Nick saw Ligero frantically prance near the edge of where the lava pit divided them. Nick struggled to slowly rise up but never broke contact with his friend. 

“Ligero, it’s okay. Just focus!” He said, but maybe it was more towards himself. 

Ligero’s prancing started to slow down as he snorted at his owner. Nick took another deep breath, but the chemicals in the air near him turned into coughing. Ligero neighed furriously. With a stomp of frusturation, Ligero backed up enough for a sprint towards his destination and started to run forward. Nick watched with excited, wided eyes but was quickly changed as the smoke, followed by a wall of lava rising from the gap between them, burning his companion into ashes. 

Then, there was silence.

But all Nick could hear was the shriek of his long lost friend. He also felt wettness on his face, probably from the sweat or tears of being a failure. No, he wasn’t a failure though, he was still here, alive, well barely. There was some crackling noises, but he wondered if that was just from his heart. It took awhile for Nick to collect himself. He felt like the forest felt when all was lost, nothing. As he slowly rose to his feet, Nick knew that he had some broken bones and cracked ribs but at this point, he didn’t care. He still had a task to do, and that was to find this damn prince and put this curse to a final end. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all like this story! I started writing it at work cause I was bored.


	2. Chapter 2

Lost, hurt and frustration were the only emotions Nick felt in his mind, but his heart told him to continue this quest. Now with a limp, shattered shoulder blade and many burns and scratches, Nick slowly walked through the ruins that soon turned into solid stone. Nick glanced up puzzled, wondering why this sudden change in geography. He was surprised to see how close he was towards this hideout. Taking a deep breath and bracing himself for any trouble nearby, Nick continued to stroll through. Though, with each step onto the stone, there was an echo that filled the air. Without his companion, Nick actually felt more nervous than he should be. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Nick’s eyes darted around the cavern, as he still held onto his sword next to him at all times.

But he paused for a moment. Something or someone was watching him. With a slow glance behind him, Nick quickly brought his sword out for protection, clinging onto it tightly.

As much as he didn’t want to admit it, he could feel the fear crawl through. _‘Was this really a good time to feel self doubt? What if...’_ Nick’s thoughts were cut off by an arrow flying just pass him. Quickly looking towards the direction of the arrow, Nick’s rapid heartbeat increased, but he was ready to defend himself.

Then there was silence again, other than the echo pounding of Nick’s heart. _‘Where are you son of a bitch?’_ He thought, desperately wanting to face his sneaky opponent.

Finally, after a series of nothingness, a gush of wind came over Nick’s sides but as he quickly turned around to see the source, Nick was face to face with another arrow, with it’s owner, dressed in black metal. This was the first human encounter that Nick has had for awhile, which made his fear rise. Why was he so worried? He should be prepared for this! But as he was confused with his thoughts, his enemy stricked again, now with a sword. Nick blocked it just in time, though his stance was weak, making him take a knee, as he blocked the attack. No words were exchanged, just weapons clashing into each other, without an audience.

Nick tried to focus hard on his enemy, trying to figure them out. Time wasted, his weakness grew. With the weapons clashing again, the enemy pushed Nick back, further away to make him loose balance, but his feet stayed intact with the acception of his hand. With a distance, Nick glanced up to look at his enemy better. He was quite tall indeed, fit for a fighter.

Controlling his breathing, Nick took a calm deep breath before running up and stricking again. But the knight didn’t budge as he blocked the attack. He must’ve known Nick was weak, and seeing how stupid he was for wasting his energy. Nick knew as well, but he was determined. What pissed Nick off the most was when his enemy started to talk. Still at a distance, they both took a breather.

“For someone so quiet, thought you would actually be a good fighter.” The knight commented. Nick remained silen, with his brows foward and clenching onto his sword.

A chuckle came out from the enemy as he lifted his helmet off. “Or have I not got to that part yet?” He continued, with a smirk on his face.

Now that Nick could see his enemy’s face, furry rose in his body like the lava he encountered earlier.

“Just wait and find out.” Nick responded in a low growl and darted forward again, to hopefully his this bastard, but to no avail, since he was blocked by the sword.

That stupid grin was still on the enemy’s face. This pissed Nick off even more, seeing how sly his enemy was and wasting his time. But maybe Nick’s arrogance was getting to him, since he was encountered with a kick to the ribs, brusing them even more and pushing himself down, then a strick to the face, bringinf his body closer to the ground. Nick’s head spun, but as he quickly opened his eyes, his enemy was on top of him, sword touching his neck. They stares glares with each other for a moment.

“Obviously you are no match for this. So why should you bother continue?” The enemy commented, his grin grew on his face.

But Nick’s frown also grew as he huffed in frustration.

“Because they said I couldn’t.” Nick replied, narrowing his eyes.

The moment he could taste the blood that was on his face was when the furry burned up. He was going to prove everyone wrong that he could do this, that he was fhe warrior that will never fail. With this new courage, Nick forcefully grabbed the sword from his opponent and regards of the sharp blade that was cutting his palms, he swong them around and with the rest of his strength and pinned him onto the ground, this time Nick being on top of his opponent. Even though he was surprised at first, his enemy couldn’t help but laugh, which puzzled Nick indeed.

“How dare you-!” He was about to say but the laughter grew louder.

“My apologies for the sudden pause in the game, but you have mistaken me from before and have indeed proved me wrong.” His enemy explained, giving him a sympathetic look.

Nick, still suspious of his enemy, slowly backed off to let the knight get up but still kept his sword towards him, ready to attack. But what surprised Nick the most was that the knight took a knee to bow. Nick’s suspicion suddenly turned into shocked, unsure what to do at this matter.

“Please, there’s really no need to do that, I’m not worthy for anything higher.” Nick explained, rubbing his neck embarrassingly. He was not used to this new praise.

The new knight glanced up as he slowly got to his feet. “So I can get it that you’re not from around here. Where’s the hurry to get to?” He asked, making Nick a bit tense, unsure of how to explain his travels.

“I was just passing through but then YOU started to waste my time.” Nick answered, crossing his arms as he lokked at the new knight displeased.

But his sour mood didn’t effect the knight as he chuckled, humored by his nee friend.

“But there is no more time in the world, so how is it wasted?” He commented slyly.

Nick sighed deeply, slowly shaking his head.

“Of course you don’t understand, no one does anymore.” He replied. There was a pause as the knight looked at Nick puzzled.

“And that’s one of the reasons why I’m passing through here so quickly.” He continued to say in a grumble before turning and walking through the mountain again.

The new knight suddenly jumped as he saw his new friend started to walk away and he quickly followed behind.

“Surely you must beed someone to..” the knight started to suggest but Nick took a sharp turn towards him, making the knight jump back slightly.

“Absolutely not!” Nick replied in a serious tone. But as he looked more closely at the knight, thinking of what could be ahead, he knew that there was an obvious choice.

So with a sigh, Nick nodded. “Alright, fine.” His answer excited the new knight, who smiled pleasingly.

“That’s the spirit!” He cheered.

Nick was not pleased to have a new companion along with him, but he didn’f have much of a choice right now.

So with that, the two knights continued the journey in hopes to finally find this lost prince. But without their notice, a witch learked between the stones, observing and taking everything in from what she just saw.


	3. Chapter 3

Between his injuries, listening to a chatterbox and walking in circles aimlessly, Nick’s mood was taking a turn. He fought the urge of strangling his new companion, who was passionately telling him stories of who he’d battled against. Nick was only half listening, giving out small comments in agreement, mainly to quicken up the stories that had no purpose. As Mason, the name of the new knight, continued to chatter, he didn’t notice that his “friend” Nick had stopped in his tracks.

“Oof! Wait why’d we-“ He commented, but as he looked up, he noticed the castle that they were trying to find, but the lightning and darkness took over his emotions too fast to process anything. Nick, on the other hand, tightened the grip of his sword and with a deep breath, continued to step forward. He was surprised on how far he’s come, especially with his injuries, but he was so close that turning back now would be foolish. Behind him though, Mason froze, taking in everything in front of him. Snapping back into reality, he hurried up towards Nick and stood in front of him, almost making Nick trip.

“Wait, are you sure this is the right place?!” Mason asked unconfident. Already irritated with how long this journey has been, Nick huffed and crossed his arms.

“Of course, it’s too obvious. If you don’t want to come with anymore because of your fear, you can leave as you please.” Nick replied, with an aggravated tone. 

Shocked, Mason took a deep breath. “I-I’m not scared!” He replied in fake confidence. But that proved him wrong when the ground started to rumble and a low growl echoed from the castle, making the knight jump instantly. But Nick stayed firm and glanced at Mason, then at the castle, knowing his obvious fear. With a sigh, Nick put both hands on Mason’s shoulders and looked directly at him.

“You did say you wanted to be the bravest knight, remember?” Nick composedly told Mason, trying to boost back his confidence. Mason slowly nodded but was still shaking from fear.

“Then what kind of brave knight is afraid of some growling?” He pointed out, raising an eyebrow, making Mason swallow hard. But with another deep breath, he could see that his new friend understood from what he was getting at.

“You’re right, I have to face my fear.” Mason replied, making Nick nod in agreement. Quickly turning around, Mason looked towards the tower.

“I have to face my fear alone. I can do this!” He continued, making Nick look bewildered.

“Wait, I didn’t say-“ Nick tried to say but paused, as a plan popped up in his head. 

Turning Mason back around towards him, Nick looked at him serious and explained the plan that was in his head.

Understanding every step, Mason suddenly got excited, maybe a little bit took excited and looked back at the castle, which was really in ruins.

“I got this, I’m going to be the bravest knight there ever was!” Mason shouted as he ran forward towards his task.

Nick looked at him hopeless but he had to let him go, for the sake of the plan.

So with a deep breath of his own, Nick tightened the grip on his sword and marched forward so Mason could get ahead start.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Someone was in the castle, and she knew it was them. But for the sake of calming down her patient, she remained silent as she continued to listen to his stories.

“…and when I saw the figure at my window, he looked so…” He paused, unsure how to describe what he imagined. 

“Your Maj-“ She cleared her throat, trying not to mess up his name. “Jake, it’s just a dream, like you said before.” 

The lost prince, Jake slowly turned his head towards his caretaker.

“But it looked so real, like he was actually there Sofie. So… I’m sure it will happen, eventually.” He replied sadly, as he laid his head on the window still where he was looking out from. 

Too many years stuck in this trapped castle, with nothing to do but daydream and listen to that god-awful creature’s roars and growls, which happens every hour (Jake has counted).

With another growl echoing through his room Jake groaned

“Is he just doing that to annoy or taunt me?” He asked uninterested. 

Sofie giggled and walked towards the lonesome prince. 

“He’s just saying hello, asking how you’re doing.” She lied, knowing something was alerting he guard dog, but she stayed put just incase. 

Jake sighed deeply. “Of course, well I hope he knows that I’m doing just dandy…” Obviously that was a lie as well.

Ever since he was put here in this dreaded castle, Jake has felt nothing but the sadness that surrounded him. Even though Sofie has noticed this, she kept her word for protecting him.

The growling happened again though, this time more louder and ferocious. Something wasn’t right. 

“Well, someone is fussy…” Jake grumbled. Glaring at the stubborn prince, the witch sighed and shook her head as she got up.

“Oh stop mopping, he’s just protecting you, you know that.” She told him as she walked towards the round table in the middle of the room.

“Yeah, ‘protecting’ me from having any fun…” Jake commented, still in a fowl mood.

Rolling her eyes, Sofie looked into the crystal ball that was centered of the table. Somewhat like security cameras, she could see what was going on in the whole castle. Scanning over each area, the camera moved where the dragon was, eating down on his money and jewels, nothing out of the ordinary. But before she glanced away, Sofie saw a figure, or two, coming towards the front entrance. Trying not to show much shock to her findings, she calmly turned towards the prince, who was still in the same position.

“I’m sure he’s just hungry, I’m going to go feed him real quick, okay?” She told him, trying to be pleasant. The prince just shrugged and when he could finally hear silence in his cage, he slowly felt the tears finally roll down his face from heartbreak and loneliness. 

——————————————————————————————————————————

Entering the castle itself felt more easier than he’d thought. Still alerted, Nick kept his sword close as he lurked around the remains of this destroyed building. He couldn’t imagine someone living here for so long, even though the rest of the world was turning into the same disaster. Every time the growling occurred, Nick’s body tensed up as well as his heart racing again. He stopped to put his hand on his chest, trying to calm down, slowly taking a deep breath. He knew that he was afraid of what’s to come, but he kept going, regards of his condition.

As he took his time throughout the castle, he wondered where the brave knight was. Unfortunately, Nick’s thoughts instantly turned to worst case scenario but he shook that off. Trying to prepare himself, Nick finally entered what looked like a trusted ballroom, filled with jewels and gold. But what he noticed firstly, was the giant sleeping creature nearby. Nick sucked his breath in sharply, still tightly holding onto his sword. If he wasn’t scared before, he was terrified now. He’d never encountered such of a beast like this, let alone a dragon!

Trying to keep calm and collected, Nick slowly started to tiptoe possibly around the dragon, but felt something zip pass him, startling him in attack mode. Glancing around frantically, he saw his companion waving about him on the chandelier. How he got up there, Nick had no idea, but his bad mood started to come back. He gave Mason an exasperated look, but all he got in return was a thumbs up. He watched as his hopeless partner tried to steadily get a better position on the chandelier, but with it shaking roughly, he was having some troubles. Nick looked around to see where the chandelier was attached from and as he found it, he hastily and tacitly ran over towards the side, where the chain was attached. Hopefully doing the right thing, Nick tightly gripped onto the chains to steady the object above. It took awhile but eventually the chandelier stood in place again. Both knights sighed in relief.

Getting back to his senses, Mason glanced down, which really wasn’t a good idea. Instantly feeling dizzy, he took a quick deep breath to try to calm down, but the anxiety only rose. Nick looked at him puzzled but before he could say or do anything about it, the ground started to shake. The creature, who apparently was sleeping, slowly turned over on it’s back, revealing it’s belly and falling back asleep, with it’s tongue out of it’s mouth. Nick’s eyes widen as he saw the enormous creature. Mason, on the other hand, was beyond scared shitless! Just under him was this mouth with sharp teeth, ready for food. Sweat was running down Mason’s face as he started to hyperventilate. 

Noticing his fear, Nick leaned closer towards the dragon but as he did that, the chandelier lowered, making Mason even more nervous. Suddenly, stopping the motion, Nick took a deep breath.

“Mason!” He whispered loudly enough for the frightened knight to look at him, with fear still in his system.

“Just focus.” Nick told him, hopefully calming them both down. 

Mason took a deep breath and gave Nick a fake grin, trying to still feel somewhat confident. Trying to refocus, Mason took out his bow and arrow again and targeted at the beast below. Seeing the confidence back in Mason, Nick grinned, knowing that this might actually work out. But that would’ve been too easy. Abruptly, Nick felt the sharp pain come back into his system, making him grown in pain, collapsing onto his knees immediately, as he clenched his fist onto his chest.

The chain then reeled forward fast, having the chandelier drop onto the creature’s belly. Mason, trying not to scream, closed his eyes as the chandelier dropped. When there was complete silence, other than the heavy breathing, Mason slowly opened his eyes. But the breathing came from the dragon, who was now fully awake, locking eyes with the frightened knight. In complete shock, Mason freeze, jaw dropped and eyes widen. 

As Nick tried to control his heavy breathing, he slowly struggled to get back up. Glancing towards up, he saw Mason now on top of the dragon, who was growling in anger. 

“That wasn’t suppose to happen…” Nick whispered to himself and sprinted towards his friend. 

Still in shock, Mason didn’t even realize the sudden light that started to heat up forming in front of him.

“Mason, get off!” Nick shouted, realizing what’s about to happen.

Instantly snapping back into reality, Mason looked at Nick for a minute but when he felt the area to heat up up, he gasped and jumped off, landing onto the pile of gold coins nearby before he was burned to a crisp.

Nick ran up to Mason, who was still in shock looking up at the dragon, immediately grabbed his hand and pulled him away before a giant claw collapsed on the coins. The motion of the force pushed the two knights even further away with them tumbling on the jewels. Glancing up, they both saw the enormous beast right on top, so they swiftly got back onto their feet. The two knights tried to run to safety but the dragon was already big enough to trap them. Before another blow of fire from him, Nick quickly turned a corner on one of the pillars nearby and slammed both their bodies against it, for protection from the fire. Catching their breaths, Mason and Nick stayed put for a bit, hopefully to get a new plan.

“Okay, new plan…” Nick suggested, already out of breath. He glanced at his friend, who was shaking uncontrollably.

“Have you actually done anything like this before?! Cause I am NOT doing that again!” Mason replied, starting to get overwhelmed. Still breathing heavily, Nick shook his head, then glanced behind them. The dragon was making a mess, knowing down everything in his way. 

“There has to be a way to sneak pass him.” Nick whispered. But when there was no response, he looked back behind him to see that Mason vanished. 

Looking around frantically, Nick tried to look where Mason has gone, he caught a glimpse of the frightened knight sneaking away with his back against the wall, trying to move away. Nick just shook his head, disappointed and glanced around the room to try to find a possible exit. With no luck, Nick sighed and tightened his grip on his sword before stepping towards the dragon. But something suddenly pulled him back,, making him look back to see Mason pulling him towards the opposite direction.

“Are you crazy?! You can’t defeat that monster on your own!” Mason proclaimed, but also not wanting to be left alone.

“Then come with me and lets finish the job! Or are you still too scared?!” Nick replied, feeling his blood start to boil. But when he saw the doleful look that Mason gave him, he relaxed a bit and sighed.

The soft moment turned tense right away as the dragon roared ferociously, making Nick glance back again, making them both link eye contact. With the dragon ready to charge, Nick sprinted towards his new enemy, leaving Mason on his own.

“Nick, what are you-“ Mason started to shout, but shut it just in case. 

He knew that this was a stupid idea, but Nick continued to fun forward, locking eyes with the beast. With each second as it came closer, Nick’s heart pounded deeper. When the dragon opened his mouth again to realize fire, Nick jumped off the pile of jewels that he climbed and was ready to strike the beast. But all failed when Nick was slammed down from the hard force of the dragon’s tail. Mason gasped, still covering his mouth as he saw Nick getting crushed onto the ground.

Watching all of this happen made the witch very pleased, knowing that her dragon could not be taken down by any knight that comes through those doors. 

Slowly regaining consciousness, Nick glanced back up at the beast who was roaring from his victory. Grabbing his sword that fell next to him, Nick uneasily got back up, trying to stand but with how damaged hid body was now with possibly even more broken bones, it was hard to get back into it. As the dragon turned towards the injured knight, ready to strike again, an arrow flew just passed it’s nose, making the creature refocus on where the source was. Nick, also tiredly glanced by, to see Mason holding his bow with an arrow ready to strike again and trying to distract the beast, which was working! 

“Come on you stinky breathing lizard!” Mason shouted at the already pissed off dragon, making it walk towards him.

With the dragon being distracted, idk took a few moments to regain his strength and hurriedly ran behind the dragon, hoping to attack. As he was getting close towards the beast’s body, Nick ran up another pile of jewels to hopefully grab onto it’s body. Luckily it worked! Groaning, Nick carefully climbed up the dragon’s side without it noticing, even though there were arrows flinging by. As he finally got onto the dragon’s back, Nick tried to find a steady spot to attack the beast but with the sudden jerks of movement, it was difficult to stay still. Abruptly, the dragon got up on it’s back legs and unfolding their wings, stretching them out widely. Unable to grip onto something quickly, Nick slide down the back but caught onto the end of the tail. Mason, who was still trying to keep his confidence intact, saw how immensely large this dragon could be. Trying to refocus, Mason drew back his arrow in the bow and as he tried to get a good target, he saw Nick hanging onto the tail. Tis worried Mason even more, unsure where to shoot. Nick held on tightly as he was being swung back and forth.

Nervously glancing between Nick and the dragon, Mason unwillingly closed his eyes and shot the arrow in an arbitrary direction, which was up. Perplexed of where the arrow went, Nick was about to shout towards Mason, but was instantly whipped around and back a couple of times, making him feel dizzy really quickly. Another roar called out and the dragon’s tail lashed forward, flinging Nick, who was yelling at this point, out into the air, crashing through some of the glass windows near by.

As Mason watched his friend disappear, all his courage left as well.

“Uh oh…” He quietly said, looking at the broken window where Nick crashed into. Now the frightened knight was really not sure if he could face his biggest fear, alone.


	4. Chapter 4

With the loud commotion going on with the dragon, Jake knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep, even if he was just pretending. He sniffled again to try to stay calm but the tears kept rolling down his face. _‘They’re probably dead but now…’_ he thought to himself, knowing that whoever was trying to get in the first place was eaten or burnt to a crisp thanks to the “guard dog”. That’s why when Jake suddenly sat up, he was immensely shocked as a knight crashed into his window, collapsing onto the wall nearby. Tightly holding onto his bed sheets, Jake nervously watched as the injured man slowly got up. And immediately when he did, the prince locked eyes with him, knowing that this was the figure from his dreams.

——————————————————————————————————————————

_‘This was him, it has to be.’_ Nick thought to himself as he locked eyes with the spooked prince in bed. No words were passed, just utter silence. Unsure why he couldn’t deliver anything from his mouth, Nick just looked at the prince, taking in every detail. Sure he wasn’t looking much royalty, but how could he if lived in a place like this. But those eyes were saying something. Before Nick could even take a closer step, in the corner of his eye he saw his companion being thrown towards him and collapsing together back on the ground. The prince, who was still watching in awe, couldn’t help but give out a little laugh from the performance. Both knights, still in pain got up and dusted themselves off as they took their time. Still in shock, Jake wanted to say something but couldn’t process the words. Once he cleared his throat, all focus came back to him.

“You’re.. uh, not here to kidnap me, are you?” He wondered innocently. Both knights looked at each other. Voluntarily, Nick took a step forth to talk first.

“That depends. You wouldn’t happen to be the ‘lost’ Prince of Cardiff, would you?” Nick asked in a presenting matter, hoping that he was in the right castle.

It took awhile for Jake to process the question, with his brows forward in confusion, but he slowly nodded to confirm.

“I… am.” He replied, not in a very confident tone since he was still confused of this sudden introduction.

Both knights had different expressions. Mason, being in utter shock as he had heard news of the missing prince and figuring it out that this was the mission all along. Nick still stared into the prince’s confusing, yet lonely eyes. He couldn’t describe it but he could feel something light up in his chest as they shared eye contact. 

The silence was interrupted by the sudden thunder holler of the dragon, who was still learning about. Both knights grabbed their weapons as they hurried towards the damaged window where they crashed into to look out. They could hear the stomping of feet and trumping of buildings nearby.

“Well, we finally found what we were looking for, time to go!” Mason, still terrified quickly ordered and dashed towards the door.

“Wait dont-!” Jake tried to warn the knight, as he remembered about the trick.

But it was too late as Mason unnoticeably grabbed the door knob, abruptly being thrown back towards Nick, making them crash into each other again. This time, Jake helplessly laughed out loud. 

“That door has a spell on it. She wouldn’t want me getting out the obvious way, or any way for that matter.” The prince explained. Getting back up slowly, Nick’s brows frown. 

“Wait, ‘she’?” he asked, unsure of who is responsible.

Jake glanced up at the knight. “Yeah, my caretaker. Well she’s supposedly a witch, but she’s suppose to be my caretaker.” He mumbled the last part, still upset of how protective how Sofie always is. 

Mason obviously was worried instantly from the word “witch”, but Nick was still trying to figure out everything.

Trying to think back to when the whole “ending the world” started to happen, Nick asked, “Do you remember when you got here in the tower?” 

It took a moment for Jake to think it through, but nothing came to mind.

“I-…” Jake paused, as he thought of a better answer.

“I want to say, roughly 10 years ago?” He replied unconfidently.

_‘That would make sense.’_ Nick thought to himself, nodding at the prince’s response.

Slow and steadily, without frightening the prince, Nick stepped towards the bed that the boy was sitting in for protection. He kneeled down by the side, close enough to talk to him better. 

“I want you to understand that were not here to hurt you in any way, we’re simply here to rescue you and bring you back to where you truly belong.” Nick explained to the prince, who's eyes were now locked onto his. 

Still absorbing his every word, Jake knew that his dreams have finally come true. This had to be it, with this “prince charming’ arriving at his window. 

Without realizing, Jake slowly nodded in agreement. 

“Okay.” he whispered faintly. Nick, pleased with how easy this was finally coming, gave the prince a small grin of gratitude. That very moment, Jake’s heart leaped for joy in his chest. _‘He has to be the one!’_ his thoughts kept telling him, making him return the smile. 

“Then it’s settled, lets get the heck out of here!” the other knight announced, calling his hands together and walking towards the damaged window. 

Nick, sighing exhaustingly stood up near the prince and reached his hand out for support.

“Your majesty.” he pronounced towards the prince, who couldn’t help but blush.

Gradually and carefully, he made contact with the knight’s kind gesture, without breaking eye contact. Rising from the bed and onto the ground, Jake noticed how much taller the knights were compared to him, making him blush even harder.

“H-How are awe going to get out?” Jake asked quietly, not wanting to sound too foolish.

Both Nick and Mason frowned, not realizing about their next step. Luckily, Mason turned on a light bulb.

“Gimme the sheets on the bed.” he requested and Jake did just that but with a puzzled look. 

Without wasting time, Mason tied up the sheets longways to make sometime of rope that was long enough to swing from. Attaching an metal arrow to the sheets, Mason aimed out from their open location and fired hard enough to make it cabe into the rocks that were across the way. Now they had a way to escape with.

Impressed, Nick nodded his head.

“Good work, now show us how it actually works.” He commented slyly.

Giving him a soft glare, Mason moved closer towards the edge, even though he was already feeling quite woozy. Trying not to look down, he prepared himself to swing across the buildings that were almost falling apart. After taking a deep breath, he glanced over at Nick once more, who was smirking at him and motioned him to continue. As he finally had enough courage to go forward, Mason jumped right off. Realizing how terrifying it actually was, Mason held onto the sheets tighter, losing his eyes and trying his best not to scream at the top of his lungs. But after seeing how well things were going so far, Mason peaked open one of his eyes and then fully as he realized how easy this was going. 

“Haha! I actually di-“ He cheerfully shouted right until he collided into the stone wall in front of him.

Nick and Jake, who were both watching, winced the moment of the crash.

“Is…Is he alright” Jake asked cautiously, worried that the knight was injured. Mason then fell back unconsciously onto the ground nearby.

“He’ll be fine, he’s a tough one.” Nick answered and walked over towards the window, as the rope still had momentum of the swinging, he reached over to pull it over towards him. 

Glancing over at the prince, who was in fear now after seeing the incident, Nick grinned at him to reassure that he was safe.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to be careful, just for you.” He informed the prince, reaching his hand out. 

Jake blushed once again as he slowly walked towards the gracious knight. _‘Am I actually going to get out of here?’_ He thought to himself and softly grabbed onto the knight’s hand. That contact again made Jake feel more safe than he’s ever been since.

Steadily walking closer towards the knight, Jake glanced over at his room one last time. He was finally leaving his prison. As something touched him, Jake gasped quietly and noticed how much closer he was towards the knight. He glanced up, feeling the burning start up in his cheeks again. Nick, preparing himself for the jump, also glanced down at the prince. Sharing eye contact again must’ve stopped time for them for another moment. Jake’s heart was beating even faster than before, while the knight’s was brightening up more. But trying not to waste too much time, Nick cleared his throat.

“Just, uh, hold on tight.” He awkwardly told the prince, who cooperated right away and wrapped his arms around the knight. 

With one hand on the rope and the other around the prince to hold him close, Nick tugged on the contraption just to make sure it’ll still work for them. Also trying not to look down, Jake’s heart was beating twice the speed as before. Noticing this, Nick gently stroked the prince’s shoulder to reassure him. Jake’s eyes shot back up towards the kind knight, making him start to calm down. 

“It’ll be okay, I promise. Just take a deep breath and slowly count to ten as you let it out, okay?” Nick told him, hoping to relieve the nervous prince. 

Understanding his every word, Jake nodded, along a small shaky breath in and out before shutting his eyes closed. Finally ready to depart, Nick too a small breath of his own before gripping onto the rope tight and jumped off of the stone. Luckily the sheets were strong enough to hold them both, letting them glide down to the other side. Jake still clung onto his rescuer for dear life as Nick focused on landing onto the safe ground. 

Coming onto it close, the knight came down unease as he stumbled onto the rough stone since his body was still injured. Jake gasped quietly as he tried to help out the knight, holding him up. Nick’s heart was starting up again, pounding deeply in his chest and making all of his sense fog up. As he tried to come back to everything, Nick heard muffled shouting and as he glanced up, it was the prince who was talking but all word were lost. Slowly shaking his head to regain his vision, Nick tried to understand what the prince was saying, but it felt so far away. His lungs began to clog up, making Nick having to cough to get some air. With each cough, his lungs burned up. All of a sudden, he felt his head being lifted up with the warmth on his cheeks. Trying to still regain his vision, the knight could barely see the prince looking at him directly with concerned eyes. Nick felt completely lost in those eyes, like nothing else mattered. Even though he was still unclear of what the prince was saying, Nick noticed that he was taking deep breaths, following steps the prince’s. It took a moment for him to recover his strength, but with the prince nearby made it easier for Nick to focus on his breathing. Nick felt that the entire world stopped for the second time as he concentrated on Jake.

“Are you okay?” The prince’s soft voice asked his rescuers. Partially surprised of his concern, Nick just nodded and sluggishly got up with the help of the gracious prince. The rapid beating of his heart began to slow down with the prince’s presents. Coming back to his senses, Nick took a look around and spotted Mason still unconscious on the ground. Taking an easy breath, the knight painfully walked over towards his partner and shook him a bit.

“Come on, we gotta keep moving if we want to stay moderately alive.” Nick told his companion, who was leisurely coming back to life. 

Seeing how already hurt both knights were, Jake couldn’t help but let some tears fall from his sentimental eyes. As they helped each other up, both Nick and Mason turned their heads towards the emotional prince who was trying to stay quiet with his sniffles.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered, mainly towards himself and glanced up at the two knights who looked at him concerned. Jake sniffled again, trying to control his emotions. 

“I’m sorry about all of this. You two and everyone else shouldn’t have risked their lives for a worthless prince like me.” He continued, still quiet but Nick heard every word, and calmly walked over towards the small figure. He gently placed both hands on Jake to try to calm him down.

The prince gasped quietly, not noticing the gesture and slowly looked up to meet the eyes of his rescuer once again.

“None of this is your fault. The reason why we’re bringing you back is to fix all of this mess that’s been happening. You’ll eventually see what’s been going on, and it’s definitely not a pretty sight.”Nick paused to let Jake absorb his words.

“And besides, I’m sure you needed to get out of that tower eventually.” Mason added confidently. Nick nodded in agreement and gave the prince a warm smile.

Looking at both of the knights, Jake could feel that they weren’t kidding and that this was really happening. It was true that he didn’t want to go back into that tower and be alone again, but why did he feel so guilty in the first place?

Taking a slow deep breath to calm down, Jake nodded his head again, knowing that this had to be done. The moment was interrupted by the loud growling of the dragon, who was still learning around. With noise starting him, Jake quickly wrapped his arms around Nick and buried his head in his chest. With him being so close, Nick could feel the shaking being again and he gently rubbed the prince’s back to try to calm him down. Glancing around, Mason tried to look for the beast but they just heard it’s footsteps. Silence came right after, only able to hear the shaking breaths of the three. Both knights were ready for anything, with their weapons in their hands, as well as Nick holding the prince closer to him. Without another warning, their enemy came back, crashing into the damaged building nearby, and faced right in front of the small figures. Already startled, Jake screamed into Nick’s chest, holding onto him tighter. Mason instantly lost all color in his face as he just stood in shock. The only one who wasn’t scared was Nick, but his heart sped up, making him feel lightheaded. But as he tried to keep it together, Nick quickly lifted the frightened prince to carry him in a bridal style, as he also grabbed Mason to hurry out of there before the flames of the dragon came forth. Not realizing on where to go, Nick and Mason, who was following right behind, sprinted through the hallways of the cropping buildings. The rooms were filled with darkness, with the occasional light that came from the flames as the true made their way down to the main hall to find the exit. 

As they swiftly coming down the stairs, an unexpected tail whip crashed right behind Mason as he hurried to follow Nick, but tripped as he accidentally missed a step causing to topple onto Nick, making them decline down the stairs faster. Luckily it wasn’t a far fall from the end, but as they collapse at the bottom, Nick’s head was spinning. As the knights regained some of their strength to slowly get up, they could hear the foot steps coming very close. Trying to refocus, Nick helped up the prince, who was trying not to cry too much, and held onto Nick tightly again. Just with a quick glance, Mason scurried further away from where he fell when a gigantic claw came crashing down near them. Even though his body was extremely sore now, Nick pushed through to get the prince up on his feet and started to move hastily before the claw stomped closer. Nick could feel it was harder to breath, effecting his heat to pound in his chest more and more. 

_‘Just… got to… keep going..’_ He thought to himself, trying to get through the rapid pain. They skated on the marble floor as they turned a corner, thankfully towards the exit. Trying to keep up, Jake ran as if this was his last chance to ever get to his freedom. A smile formed on his face once he saw brightness straight at him. _‘This is it, I’m finally getting out of here!’_ his mind cheered.

Unfortunately, that would’ve been too easy. The dragon, who was right behind them, roared angrily as it caught up close. As if everything stopped in slow motion, the dragon inhaled and exhaled the flames towards the trio, who were right at the gate. Just barely noticing, Mason glanced up to see a set of chains that were holding up the gate. Taking out his bow in the nick of time, he shot a metal arrow at the dock that held up the chain making it unravel quickly down to lower the gate. Hurrying, before the gate collapsed down, Nick held up the prince once again and slid through the gate, with Mason following right behind just as the gated slammed shut. The flames right behind them disintegrated right against the metal door, causing the dragon to stop but with the slippery stone, skidded straight at the door before him, crashing onto the metal, with it’s body smoothed against it all. The whole castle shook with the thud. 

Nearby, the witch just shook her head in disappointment as she witnessed what all has happened. _‘Taking him without permission? What an unwise thing to do young knight. I hope that curse of yours treats you well.’_ she thought and with a smirk on her face disappeared in the shadows before the entire castle collapsed. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Trigger warning towards the end of the chapter: depression)

With a good distance between them and the deserted castle, the knights and prince arrived at the stoned mountains where Mason and Nick met. Gradually sliding down the slopped rocks first, Jake happily landed onto the gravel nearby. Amazed by the view before him, Jake, trying to keep all of his excitement inside the whole time, couldn’t help but cheer. Following behind him, the two knights also slid down unsteadily, crashing onto each other when they landed hard on the ground below. Gathering themselves, and slowly getting up, they saw how happy the prince was, who was jumping for joy. 

“See? Totally worth it.” Mason commented, glad to notice the prince as happy as he can be. Nick, who couldn’t keep his eyes off of the prince, was mesmerized by his positive attitude.

A small grin formed on his face as he watched the prince continue to cheer in excitement. Trying to calm down, the prince glanced over at the two knights and chucked softly as he walked up towards them.

“You have no idea how thankful I am to be rescued by two bold knights like yourselves. I’m highly in your gratitude!” He presented, curtsying in front of them.

Politely, Mason bowed back at the prince, but Nick just stayed still for a moment. Did he really deserve such gratitude from this royal prince? By the end of this whole quest, he was sure that they’ll all forget about it. Trying not to think too much into it, Nick slowly shook his head, disapproved the gratitude from the prince and glanced towards the cliff, making his way towards the edge. Looking back up, Jake was taken back at the knight’s response, seeing him walk away. Not sure why that the prince was bothered by the way this knights was, he slowly followed him towards the cliff.

Fully aware at his present’s, Nick sighed but didn’t dare speak yet. His mind was too occupied by the negative thoughts that were craved inside to pay any other attention to anything else. Though, Jake surely surely wanted to know what was troubling the knight. He came all this way to be saved by his Prince Charming, but the outcome of it wasn’t what he’d expected.

Trying to figure out how to approach the knight in a gentle manner, Jake opened his mouth a couple of times before any words projected out.

“If, uh, my gratitude wasn’t enough for you, I can reward you with-“ Jake nervously corrected himself but Nick objected the apology. 

“It’s not that. I don’t really care about the reward.” Nick replied in a serious tone. He glanced over at the prince, who's expression was interested in what Nick was going to say. 

With a sigh, Nick continued. “I’m more worried of… how you’re going to take all of what’s around us now. You said it’s been 10 years?” He asked and the prince nodded. 

“A lot has changed within that time. Just be ready to face anything.” Nick advised the prince.

He didn’t truly tell him what the really problem was, since there were too many at this point. Saving the prince was suppose to be the main task, but the consequences were too high now since the prince was in view of others possibly. 

Jake thought for a bit, to process everything and couldn’t help but smile as he looked more closely at the knight.

“Good thing that I have two strong knights to protect me then.” He confronted Nick, who’d happen to grin at his response. 

“You sure have a lot of faith in a couple of kidnappers.” Nick replied with a chuckle, rubbing his neck embarrassingly. 

“I don’t see it as kidnapping, since I agreed to come along. But before we start anywhere, may I ask the two names of who to truly thank?” Jake asked graciously.

Nick was hesitant at first, but knew that this question would come up eventually.

“Well, I just go by Nick, and that one over there is Mason.” He replied simply and pointed at the other knight, who was occupied in his own acts, balancing his sword on his hand that kept falling. 

Delighted, Jake smiled wide, feeling much more comfortable in their presents.

“Excellent Nick! I, Prince Jake, am honored to be protected by such brave knights!” He announced pleased, bowing at the knight.

Nick felt his heart to warm up again once the prince announced his name. Sure, he must’ve heard that name before but hearing it again from the actual figure made the knight feel more honored, even if he didn’t truly deserve it.

Something caught Nick’s eye as he glanced up to look out towards the cliff again. His eyes narrowed to adjust as there was smoke rising from below. Jake lifted his head up and glanced over to what Nick was looking at. As he saw the burning of the ground, he gasped in shock of the sudden disaster.

“How.. did that happen so quickly?” Jake asked in a soft, worried tone. Being locked up for so many years, he couldn’t see how badly the outside world has become. 

Nick took a breath before answering the prince’s question. “No one truly knows. They just say that the lands are cursed now.” He replied, not realizing that his hand was clenched onto his chest.

Was he truly scared of how badly this curse has become? Especially since it could parentally kill him any minute? He didn’t want to think that far into it. He finally got this far, with the prince and a new companion, how much longer can he last before his last heartbeat? 

Lost in his own thoughts, Nick shook his head to get back into reality and turned quickly away from the scene. Jake, worried of Nick’s well-being followed him behind.

“We need to pick up the pace if we don’t want to get sucked into that darkness below.” Nick announce to the two.

Mason, almost dropping his sword and stunning to catch it, looked up at the other knight.

“Any way we could get away faster, like with a horse?” He suggested.

Nick paused, thinking back ti how he got here in the first place. With his horse Ligero, it did make the progress go faster but he lost his friend too quickly. Thinking back to that tragic memory, Nick took a deep breath to control his emotions. 

“That wouldn’t make much of a difference.” He lied, trying not to give out too much and continued to walk away, towards down a path through the rocks.

Noticing that something must be troubling the knight, Jake caught up near him to follow, side by side as Mason followed behind. 

Unfortunately, Nick didn’t know what day it was, let alone how much further they had to go. His heart was definitely not in good conditions at the moment and his thoughts distracted him too much, but as he tried to focus on the mission, he felt that possibly, now having the prince with them things will be alright in the end. But you never know what could happen, especially with the world being broken down everywhere you go.

————————————————————————————————————

It wasn’t long until the sunset, making the trip stop for camp. They were safely down the mountains and onto the grassy plains, making it better to rest up. Thankfully with the few items they were carrying, they could move easily if something came up. 

Once they were all settled, Mason immediately passed out on the grass. The prince, who was also quiet exhausted, laid nearby curled up in his own space, just like a cat. But Nick, laying down with his arms behind his head, was still wide awake.

He didn’t want to be, he was beyond exhausted. especially how sore his body has become. But he kist couldn’t fall asleep. Was it because of his ticking-time bomb in his chest or the nightmare appearing once he closed his eyes? Whatever it was, Nick tried his best to stay awake, He tried to take a deep breath but the air in his lungs got clogged once again, hesitating his breath as he quickly let it out. Nick couldn’t remember when this problem began, was it before or after the trials of his faith in life? 

Trying to think of something else to occupy himself, Nick turned slightly to see the small figure sleeping peacefully. Just watching him made Nick feel calm, like before. But why, he though. Why was the prince making him feel such attraction? The moment they shared eye contact for the first time, Nick knew something was going on with his feelings, something more settling and passionate. He didn’t want to believe it though, he refused. He knew that he didn’t deserve anyone, let alone the Prince of Cardiff. With a sigh of regret, Nick slowly sat up and quietly got up to walk around to keep himself awake.

As his muscles were still sore from before, it took Nick awhile to walk to the steam nearby. When he reached it, he gradually kneeled down, cupping his hands to fill up with water to wash his face. Other than the million things that were hurting in his body, he started to feel a major throbbing of pain I'm his head. Getting frustrated with the problems piling up, Nick infuriated ran his damp hands trough his hair to hopefully cool him down.He was always so hard on himself, probably because he was raised to be so. He hated thinking back to his past, that’s why he refuses to fall asleep or partake in many conversations. He didn’t want to reveal too much of his burden. He didn’t want to admit but he could feel some tears fall from his eyes. Ashamed of his feelings, he quickly covered his eyes to try to stop this foolish behavior but the tears just kept coming.

_‘Shit, this wasn’t suppose to happen, you idiot.’_ He scolded himself, angry with the sudden depression he’s facing. He knew that he was weak, he knew that he wasn’t going to make it out of this hellish nightmare and he was terrified to face it alone. With the many times he’s faced other alone, this moment was the most difficult. He was great in battle, as his new friend Mason would say but dealing with everything else around his was difficult. Taking a couple of deep breathes to calm down, Nick glanced up to make sure no one was around. Already embarrassed by his emotions, he would’ve felt more bewildered if someone saw him break character like this.

Was that all he was, a character in the world’s play that was soon to end? Everywhere he looked, the world was more in shamble than before. What if bringing the prince back was a trick of it’s own and nothing of any matter would change? Nick shook his head furiously, standing up with his hands balled up through his messed up hair. Frustrated with everything going on all of a sudden. Exhaling slowly, Nick opened his eyes, seeing everything blurry from the water still in his way. He tried to think of what to do next, he definitely didn’t want to go back to camp and try to fall asleep, but the couldn’t continue this behavior. Instantly regretting this night, Nick gradually walked back to the two, who were still dead asleep hopefully. Laying back down, with his arms behind his head, he glanced up at the sky as the sun started to rise up, to start a new day. 


	6. Chapter 6

That morning, Nick unnoticeable falling asleep, opened his eyes and rubbed them, still feeling quite drowsy. Glancing around sleepily, he noticed that one of the two, being the prince, was missing. Perplexed, he slowly got up and walked over to Mason, who was still dead asleep, snoring. Rolling his eyes, Nick gently kicked the sleeping knight to wake up.

“Nooo… 5 more minutes…” the sleeping knight complained, trying to get more comfortable. But Nick wasn’t having it as he forcefully shoved the knight over to wake him up fully.

“Where is he?” Nick asked in a serious tone. Sitting up now and rubbing his eyes, Mason yawned.

“Where is who?” He replied, not fully aware of anything. Annoyed, Nick shook his head.

“The prince you idiot! Where did he go?!” his tone was more angry.

Somewhat more awake, Mason rubbed his eyes again to see more clearly. Nick was right, the prince wasn’t with them anymore at the campsite.

“He, wasn’t with you?” Mason asked dazed, making Nick face palm himself. 

Just as Nick was about to explain, the two knights heard something faint in the distance, sounding like humming. Paranoid, the pair quickly grabbed their weapons and hurried towards the noise. 

Once they got towards the seam, where the noise was coming from, the knights immediately stopped in their tracks. As they were hypnotized by the image before them, the prince, who was the one singing in the first place. Not noticing the knights presents was in the deeper end of the stream. and what it looked like was washing his hair. With just his shirt off, Nick unaware felt his cheeks burn up as he looked at Jake, like he’d never seen him before. 

Observing the affection, Mason smirked and nudged the frozen knight.

“Is someone still dreaming?” He joked, but Nick instantly came back to his old self, shaking his head and arms crossed like nothing happened.

Giving Mason a hard glare, Nick glanced back at the prince quickly.

“Come on your highness, this isn’t a sauna!” Nick shouted, starling the prince. Frustratingly he then turned to walk back to the small campsite. 

Nick knew that he was in a bad mood, probably because of the lack of sleep from his episode last night. Whatever it was, he just wanted to keep moving without any delay. 

Watching the knight walk away, Jake felt as if something was holding Nick back. Even though they just met, he desperately wanted to help his rescuer. The prince glanced over at Mason for reassurance but he was distracted, trying to catch some sort of fish with his sword. 

_‘Yeah, not very bright.’_ the prince thought raising an eyebrow. Quickly drying off and putting back his shirt on, Jake hurried to catch up towards Nick, who wasn’t paying too much attention. Clearly trying to avoid eye contact, Nick could sense that the prince was watching him, which annoyingly put him on edge. Giving him a quick glance, he saw those sympathetic eyes, desperately trying to reach his. But rolling his own eyes, idk sighed deeply and shook his head, trying to avoid eye contact again.

“What’s with the attitude?” Jake questioned the stubborn knight, who was clearly pissed off at this point. 

“I don’t have an attitude.” Nick replied, in a tone where it clearly showed. The prince couldn’t help but chuckle at the knight’s wrong answer.

“Sure Mr. ‘I don’t get enough sleep at night.’” Jake sassed him back with smirk. 

_‘Did he just-'_ Nick was perplexed and shot the prince a hard glare, huffing a deep sigh of frustration.

But the questions kept piling up, one after another.

“So why don’t you sleep at night? Are you really nocturnal, like a vampire? Is that why you’re really kidnapped me, to suck my blood? Where;s your layer? In fact, where are we anyway? Are we-" the prince’s mouth just kept blabbing. 

Nick, trying to block out the prince’s annoyance by covering his ears, couldn’t handle it anymore. He stopped walking immediately and took a sharp turn towards the prince, infuriated by his talking.

“Just shut up!” Nick yelled at him, maybe a little bit too loud, scaring the birds nearby as they flew away. 

The two froze in place. As Nick stared directly into the more frightened prince, he knew that he must’ve fucked up. Jake’s face must’ve instantly changed expressions from shocked to worry, with tears forming in his eyes. He didn’t anticipate to make the knight more angry, he just wanted to help him out with whatever was upsetting him currently. But since he’s haven’t had much social interaction for a very long time, maybe he wasn’t doing it right. Jake thought he was finally making a friend, but it seemed to turn into the opposite.

Once Nick saw the tears form in the prince’s eyes, he sighed disappointedly, placing his fingers against his temples. _‘Damn it…’_ Now he had to deal with this, on top of everything else, which he did not need. 

Before either of them could speak another word to one another, an eerie darkness started to form around them, with smoke slowly moving underneath their feet. 

Nick’s glare shifted downwards as he noticed the unusual steam of smoke that surrounded them. Jake instantly knew what was happening, making him shiver more in fear. His eyes glanced up to see the knight’s reaction, but his didn’t change, since he was focused on what could happen. The sudden flash of lightning made the two jump, with Jake unknowingly ran up to Nick and holding onto him sigh. Like before, Nick held onto his sword tight in his palm, ready to attack any second. But what appeared happened too fast for Nick to process anything. Out of no where, bursts of fire erupted near the two, shaking the ground and making them loose their balance, falling to the ground. Smoke covered their sight and air, making them both cough it out. Struggling to look up, Nick could feel pressure in his lungs, crushing his pounding heart making it more difficult to focus. Once Jake saw the figure he instantly gasping in fear. _‘She’s here…’_ he concluded in his mind, seeing the sharp heels in from of his face. It was true, Sofie followed them all the way here.

“Oh Jackie, why on earth would you want to leave your palace? Do you not enjoy the company there?” the witch teased the prince, making him feel guilty.

With his whole body shaking, Jake slowly stood up, wrapping his arms around himself. As he backed up, he bumped into something, rather someone taller than him. Looking up, he could unclearly see his knight, Nick glare out forward as he brought his sword across Jake, hopefully for protection.

“Listen bitch, maybe the reason he left was because that tower was boring as fuck! Especially in that condition.” The stubborn knight answered, getting more upset with this situation.

Sofie, not amused by the knights response frowned with glaring eyes.

“Is that so? Well if I’d known, I would’ve invented someone to come play. Such as this one!” she announced, with the flip of the wrist, forming a cloud that shaped upwards.

Gasping again, Jake remembered what happened to what forms and he covered his face in Nick’s chest again. Nick braced himself for anything that would charge. But all happened too fast as a push of air in between the prince and knight separated them and the formed shadow appeared in from of Nick, locking dead eyes with the stunned knight. 

“Too quick for you?” the shadow asked right before forcing a hard push at the frozen knight back 10 feet towards the surrounding trees at light speed. 

Definitely not ready for that attack, Nick skidded back and was slammed against the trunk of one of the trees nearby. Hitting his already sore head against the bark, Nick tried to clear up his vision before seeing his attacker in front of him by a blink of an eye. Before he had time to defend himself, the shadow vigorously gripped onto Nicks arm, digging his claws into them holding him still and onto Nick’s throat, clogging up his air. 

Gasping but not quickly, Nick struggled to loosing up his enemy’s force but it only grew tighter. The shadow grinned as he watched his staged strive for his life. It all happened too fast for Jake to call out for help. All he could do was watch hopelessly. He didn’t know that she would go all in like this, especially summoning her magic to create a fighter like the shadow so suddenly.

Feeling her long nails on his shoulders, he quietly gasped again, fearing of whats to come next.

“See what happens when you break the rules? Your friends get hurt. You don’t want that do you?” she whispered into the prince’s ear, manipulating him.

The prince shook his head forcefully, shutting his eyes in fear. 

“Stop this, stop hurting everyone!” he screamed, which unintentionally summoned a massive wind force against everything, pushing the trees and everyone all back.

The witch knew this would happen, making her vanish quickly while her Shadow disappeared into smoke. It also pushed Nick back against the tree again and falling onto the ground, luckily he was prepared to put out his hand for a soft land.

Breathing deeply, Jake glanced around to see what happened near him. The surrounding trees were all pushed back and a deep circle formed into the ground. The prince gasped and ran towards the once again injured knight, who coughed from trying to get more air.

“Nick! I’m so sorry, are you okay?!” Jake asked the knight as he slowly helped him up.

Even though he was struggling, Nick glared up at the prince and pushed him away forcefully.

“What the hell was that all about? What did you just fucking do?!” Nick shouted, glaring at the prince. He wasn’t only confused, but back to his pissed off mood.

Backing up, Jake was surprised as he looked at the angry knight. If he wasn’t mad before, he definitely was right now as he breathed heavily. 

There were some rushing through the first, coming closer but it didn’t stir the prince or knight. Coming through was Mason, carrying some fish that he “successfully” caught when the scene was happening.

“Hey guys, guess what-?! Whoa..” Mason’s thought stopped once he saw the unnatural environment. 

“What happened here? Earthquake?” He asked confused, looking around up at the trees that leaned back diagonally. 

Still huffing in anger, Nick glared at Jake, who stayed quiet. 

“Jake, what the fuck was that?!” Nick wasn’t going to let this explanation slide.

Cowardly taken back at the knight’s tone, Jake who was still holding himself together glanced over at Nick but instantly looked away once he saw the knight’s angry locked eyes.

“It’s…It’s nothing… Don't worr-.” the prince quietly protested but was directly faced with Nick, making him gas again with the sudden fright.

“Don’t bullshit me! What did you do?!” Nick infuriating growled at the prince. On top of everything else, this had to happen, whatever it was. Now he didn’t even know if he could trust this “prince” anymore.

“R-Remember when I said that I was a worthless prince? That you and everyone else shouldn’t be saving mine?” He started to say, glancing up to see Nick still glaring at him. Jake took a sharp breath before continuing.

“It’s because of what just happened. She… controls me. And only distinction follows with me…” Jake confessed, uneasily glancing up at the knight.

Without changing his expression, Nick stared down at the prince, trying to understand what he said. But he was too upset by the situation to conclude anything. Without warning, the knight forcefully threw down his sword and stomped away from the prince, walking back into the woods. Sadden by his response, the defeated prince lowered his head as tears filled up his face.

Still mind-boggled, Mason confusedly watch the two separate. He wanted to say something, but nothing came to mind that could help the situation. Glancing back at the prince, who was now sitting down and covering his face with his hands, the other knight walked over to him and kneeled by him, gently patting his back.

“Hey, whatever happened doesn’t mean we have to stop our journey. I’m sure everything is going to be alright.” Mason told the sad prince, trying to be optimistic.

Still sniffling, Jake shook his head. “No, nothing is the same because of me… I just wanted to go home, but I can’t because of this stupid curse!” he explained, getting frustrated with himself.

Unsure how to react or what to do, Mason glanced around to think of something better to say. Then a lightbulb turned on once again.

“You know, I’m pretty sure he’s more upset with himself than at you since he has feeling for you.” Mason explained, totally guessing the last part. Sure, he didn’t know what was happening half of the time, but he could tell something was bothering the two. And that usually means love… well, according to everyone else.

Surprised, Jake stopped sniffling and slowly looked up at Mason, who was smiling hopefully at the prince. 

“He… He does? But he must hate me by now…” Jake replied, wiping his tears. 

Not backing down, Mason shook his head.

“Maybe, but not for long once he realizes how much he truly cares. Who else would’ve rescued you from that tower?” he explained, trying to put the dots together.

Sniffling again, Jake tried to process Mason’s words. That moment when Nick and himself shared eye contact for the first time, he knew that there had to be some sort to connection between them.

Jake opened his mouth a couple of times as he tried to progress any words out but he still had that thought in his mind. 

“Maybe you’re right. I’m going to talk to him about it.” Jake confidently said, straightening up and walked towards where Nick disappeared.

Mason, who was proud of his work, grinned as he watched the prince catch his lover. But after a second, he realized how much of a bad idea it was to actually confess feelings when the other party wasn’t in the mood. Being aware of this suddenly made Mason freaked out and sprinted towards the prince.

When he caught up to him to try to back him out, Mason saw that Jake was already talking to Nick, who was still pissed. To distract them, Mason ran up between them.

“It’s just, I wanted to say to you Nick is that-“ Jake unconfidently was saying until Mason butted in.

“What…he uh… was going to say was uh… Dinner is ready!” Mason embarrassingly said, holding up the two fish he caught earlier.

Nick, still not impressed by this act, rolled his eyes and glanced at Mason, who gave him a fake smile. Looking back at the prince, he saw that even he was smiling too, nodding his head excitingly. Nick just shook his head.

“Might as well eat now…” Nick grumbled with a sigh.

The prince and knight cheered as Nick walked over to gather some wood for the fire.

—————————————————————————————————————————-

After dinner was finished, Mason again passed out quickly. Trying to fish with a sword is hard work for a knight.

With the wood was still lit, Nick stared into it, trying to gather his own thoughts and contemplating on what happened today. 

He glanced around, seeing Mason asleep as always but the prince was no where to be seen… again. Nick sighed, he just didn’t know what to think of him anymore. That prince was trouble, but every time he saw him, his heart would finally calm down. That never happened before.

Clenching onto his chest, he felt his heart in a normal beat, making him calm down for a bit, But he just sighed, knowing that it’ll eventually cause him problems again.

“You doing okay?” a small fragile voice asked, making Nick glance up, seeing the prince from above looking at him.

_‘Of course he would ask that.’_ Nick thought to himself, still glaring at the prince borrowing his eyes, But being too exhausted, the knight just sighed and shook his head looking away. 

Voluntarily, the prince sat down next to the tired knight, making the air a bit warmer between them. Silence began shortly after as the two looked at the fire, gathering what they were going to say. After sometime, both the knight and prince cleared their throats.

“Look I’m..-”

“I just wanted to..-”

They said, covering up their apologies as they looked at each other in a sympathetic look.

They stayed quiet as they just stared, lost in their own eyes. 

Jake felt that glow again just when he met the knight at his tower. Nick’s heart was calm once more, feeling warmth as if he was feeling alive again. 

Before he got too caught up in the prince’s eyes, Nick glanced away sighing again.

“I’m… sorry about earlier…” He started to say. He was definitely not comfortable enough for apologizing. But it had to be done. Jake patiently watched the knight as he listened carefully.

“I… know that I’m a real asshole and that I’m probably no prince charming… But I’m really trying to figure out what the hell is happening here.” Nick continued, glancing up at Jake. 

“With the witched and magic and what not… I’ve never..” He paused, catching his own words. “I just didn’t know something like that could happen… So I guess I freaked out.." He confessed, not proudly though. Glancing away, Nick felt the warmth on his face from embarrassment. 

But his head was turned and lifted up towards Jake, looking at him in the eyes.

“It’s okay. I knew that you probably wouldn’t have understand what was going to happen, no one ever did.” Jake paused, as he glanced down. 

“It’s a long story and I’m sorry that you were put in this mess to save someone like me, someone worthless and not deserved to-..” He was cut off by Nick placing his fingers on the prince’s lips to stop him.

“You’re not worthless.” Nick told him truthfully, staring at him determined. Slowly placing his fingers off of Jake’s lips, Nick glanced down, thinking on what to say next.

“In fact, you’re probably… the most important person to..” Nick continued to say, without thinking as he carefully placed his hand on his chest again, worried for another burst.

Jake looked at him, glancing at his hand on his chest and looked back up at the knight, who still had a worried look on his face. Gradually reaching over, the prince took Nick’s hand, who's eyes followed surprised and held it close to himself. Nick could feel the prince’s heart, vastly racing but in a calm beat.

_‘Was this what a heartbeat really feels like?’_ Nick wondered, hoping that one day he’ll be able to feel that beat.

As he looked into the knight’s understanding eyes, Jake thought back to what Mason said earlier.

_“…not for long once he realizes how much he truly cares.”_ Remembering that made the prince’s eye widen. _‘Does he?’_ He started to think, still staring at the knight.

Nick, not thinking clearly, slowly leaned close towards the prince, mesmerized again by his eyes, his features, everything about him suddenly started to fill the knight’s mind. Noticing how close Nick was getting, Jake also leaned in, hoping that something will happen. 

With a brief hesitation, the two, still staring into each others eyes, were about to make a connection before a noise startled them. Looking back at the fire, they noticed Mason who was clearly asleep, rolling over to get into a more comfortable position.

When it all came quiet again, the two sighed in relief. But why were they afraid if someone saw, especially that someone being Mason, who was clearly the love Guru.

Glancing back at each other, Nick and Jake nervously resumed where they left off.

Was this really happening? It shouldn’t, should it? There were no rules established except for protecting the prince. Nick didn’t know what to think, his mind was completely blank. But maybe that was a good thing, since nothing came to mind. just what was happening right now.

Jake’s mind, on the other hand, was lighting up with excitement. He was actually going to do this. Mason was right, he just had to tell, well show, how he truly felt.

Before either of them realized it, their lips were touching each other. Shocked at first, but then followed by satisfaction, Jake closed his eyes slowly.

Nick’s eyes stayed wide. He wasn’t dreaming, this was real. His eyes then start to drop down as he also felt the satisfaction that he needed.

The knight and prince didn’t separate, only moving closer to each other with their mouths staying together tightly.

Desperately wanting more, Jake wrapped his arms around Nick, who automatically followed suit, holding his- the prince closer towards him. The kiss deepened, their flavors combining, fireworks blasting off in both minds. Just taking small breaths of air in between, the prince and knight continued to hold each other close, not realizing how much time passed by. Did it matter though, since the world was ending anyway?

Nick knew that he was going to die alone, but now, here, with the prince, did he really want to? And Jake knew that he wanted to help Nick, was this the help that he needed? They didn’t know the answers to these questions but what mattered was that they apologized and confessed to each other, in one way or another. 

Releasing from the kiss, they both breathed deeply, not noticing how long the romantic moment was. They continued to stare at each other, figuring out if what they did was good enough for the other. Jake bit his lip while Nick glanced away rubbing his neck embarrassingly as he turned red. It took awhile for them to gather themselves the courage to look back at each other. Both were embarrassed by the act. Jake, not knowing if that was the right move to confess his love for the knight from the beginning. And Nick, not sure if he was suppose to agree with the enjoyment of the prince’s affection.

_‘Maybe Mason was right..’_ They both thought to themselves. Glancing one more time at each other, they didn’t say a word but once the nearby clapping started, they were both startled. Nick and Jake saw a very pleased Mason, applauding them for their accomplishment. 


	7. Chapter 7

“Well it’s about time!” Mason happily announced, applauding the two lovers.

Instantly embarrassed, Nick and Jake stood far apart from each other, looking away trying not to share eye contact again.

“Come on, don’t tell me that you two are actually…” Mason was about to say but saw the guilty look on them.

“Oh.. Well no need to be that embarrassed by a little love. It was too obvious for you two!” He explained, trying to ease the awkwardness.

Jake, blushing really hard, glanced over at Nick to see how he was handling it. Unfortunately, Nick was having a harder time. Completely ashamed, he felt even more guilty. But why, just because Mason saw? He knew that Nick had feelings for the prince already, in face he was the the one who saw it at first. So why does it matter? They weren’t going to judge like… like everyone else did.

His mind stopped. He couldn’t think of that right now. That was then, this is now. Swallowing deeply, Nick nervously glanced back at the two, who looked at him as if he was ill.

“Nick, you alright?” Jake asked, tilting his head to the side in an adorab- angle.

He shook his head to stop the thought. _Why think that at all?!_  His mind scolded at him.

Before any other words were exchanged, a loud gunshot echoed the forest, startling the trio.

_Perfect timing._  Nick thought, glaring at the direction of the noise.

The knight gathered his weapon and ran towards the sound, quickly followed by the prince and other knight.

Coming closer towards more rumbling, Nick slowed down to try to keep hidden. Once he got to a good area to see what was going on, he stopped suddenly and patiently waited to see what happened.Next to him appeared Jake, then Mason soon after.

“What’s happening?” whispered the prince, curious as ever. Unsure, Nick stayed quiet, trying to figure out what’s happening. Mason, on the other hand, wasn’t afraid of anything (well, except dragons of course) and stood up to get a better look.

Nick instantly shoved the visible knight back down to keep him hidden.

“Are you that stupid? Do you really want us to get spotted?” Nick hissed at his clueless friend.

Mason raised an eyebrow and shrugged back at Nick. Another gun shot was fired, startling them again. But soon after, they heard voices with heavy accents.

“No no no, that was completely wrong! Did ye even have a go?”

“Oh lik’ ye knew ony better Smitters!”

“Of course I do, I be th’ captain!”

Even more confused, the trio looked over at each other before preparing themselves to stand up.

“On three, we stand up, okay?” Nick suggested. The other two nodded.

“One.” Nick started.

“Two.” Jake continued.

“Three.” Mason finished with them all standing up.

Before them was an abandon ship, wrecked on to the land with two pirates who were arguing about the aiming. Even more confused about the scene, the three glanced over at each other.

“Who on earth mad ye’ th’ cap’n?!” The argument continued.

Well, ’tis me ship!” the, so called “captain” proudly answered, crossing his arms.

“Look at where yer ship led us to cap’n!” the other one shouted.

“Will ye two shut up, I be tryin’ t’ fix yer mess!” supposedly there was a third one, echoed from the broken ship.

This was definitely making Nick, Jake and Mason utterly more perplexed. 

“What the heck is going on?” Nick questioned, watching the scene puzzled.

“Looks like they need help.” Jake suggested and before the knights could disagree, the prince was already out of hiding and walked towards the pirates.

“Jake! What are you-?!” Nick asked in shock, running after him.

“Awe, true love.” Mason quietly commented and followed behind.

Before catching the runaway, Nick didn’t see Jake stop in front of him, making him run into the small figure, quickly followed by Mason bumping into Nick. The momentum of the push made the trio fall face front onto the ground that was covered in sand.

Obviously they were stopped as the three brushed themselves off. Mason unfortunately got sand all in his mouth, causing him freak out disgustedly. 

Noticing shadows covering them, Jake glanced up to see the two pirates that they were spying on before standing in front of them, with weapons in hands. 

Too scared to defend himself, Jake slowly put up his hands defensively but Nick swiftly took his sword out to shield the prince, blocking the opponent’s weapons.

“You lay one finger on him, I’ll cut them off!” the knight said in a serious tone. Jake glanced up at his- the knight, blushing slightly.

The two pirates glanced at each other, then back at the three and laughed hysterically. Nick only glared at them as the prince and Mason gave each other questionable looks.

“Our sincere apologies sir knight! We thought that ye were here t' pilfer from us!” One of them said.

“We be nah here t' fight, only fer adventure 'n treasures!” The other one said, supposedly the captain. “Well, that be if we can weigh anchor…” He added embarrassingly, glancing at the damaged boat.

Fairly relaxed, Nick lowered his weapon but was still on guard just incase.

“That’s what I noticed. Do you guys need any help?” Jake asked politely, taking a shy step forward.

The two pirates’s expressions turned into delight as they looked over at the prince.

“Would we?!” they both exclaimed pleased, but there was sudden banging noises from the rusty ship.

The third pirate poked his head out from the top.

“No, no! We don't needs anymore help! I've got it all-!” he was explaining until abruptly dropping straight down, hitting many obstacles on the way, echoing through the ship until hitting at the very bottom, crashing down hard.

Glancing back at the three, the two pirates gave them sympathetic looks.

But before Jake could take one step forward, Nick dragged him back suddenly.

“How do we know we can trust you pirates?” He asked sternly. They’ve been in too many situations to make sure that this is a safe choice.

“We have gold.” spitted out the one but the captain quickly nudged him hard on the side.

“Ah, wha' he meant was that we 'ave plenty o' grub 'n water!” The captain corrected.

“Yeah... ye can adventure out wit' us as long as ye'd like!” The one added. 

Nick thought for a bit before deciding but Jake stepped in first. 

“Can you get us to Cardiff?” The prince asked right away, thrilled to hopefully go back home.

Shocked of where to go, Nick glanced at him, rising an eyebrow. ‘He wants to go there that quickly?’ He thought, already doubting himself. But it made sense, since they had to go back anyway.

“O' course, anywhere ye'd like!But first, I 'ave t' ask ye yer names, jus' fer safety reasons.” The captain explained, crossing his fingers behind his back.

Mason butted in for the introductions.

“I’m Mason, and this is my pal Nick and his boyfriend Jake!” He said in a jiffy.

Those two words made the two couple bright red in the face, with Nick face palming and Jake shyly covering up his face with his hands.

“Lovers eh? Well all be welcomed aboard this beauty! Come along!” The captain announced, pointing at the stilled boat, that was still stuck.

Looking up from his hands, Jake excitingly cheered and followed the two pirates towards the beached ship. With a slow glance, Nick sighed and gave Mason another hard glare, making him put up his hands defensively in an embarrassing matter.

“‘Boyfriend’… Really?” Nick raised an eyebrow at the question.

“It was all I could think of!” Mason replied, but that didn’t stop him from getting punched in the arm by the annoyed knight.

Rolling his eyes, Nick looked over at the ship before taking a deep breath and walking towards it, with Mason following right behind like a puppy dog.

_At least we’re on land for now._  He though to himself, worried that he would have to face his worst fear yet.

——————————————————————————————————————————

With the help of the three, the ship began to look good as new and was ready to sail again! But before sailing off on their journey, the captain, who called him Smitters, prepared a meal to thank them for their hard work. Jake and Mason were instantly excited to eat again but Nick, on the other hand, was not feeling an appetite. 

Already out at sea, Nick could feel the queasiness in his head and stomach. He was definitely not prepared for anything like this. There was a reason why he stayed on foot for so long, but now being on a boat, out on the water made him more uncomfortable. Sure, Mason and Jake were having a blast exploring the new environment and helping out the pirates, but Nick just stayed quiet as he tried to ease himself comfortably. 

It was already towards night and Nick disinterestedly looked out of the ship by the side, holding on for dear life. Occasionally he would feel something awful come up through his throat, preparing himself ti barf but what all came out was a burp.

Nick never felt this sick before in his life, but now that it was happening, he was regretted coming onto the boat in the first place. Trying to calm down, he gently placed his hand on his forehead to keep it up and resting his elbow onto the railing. He took a couple of deep breaths to relax his motion sickness.

“Are you alright Nick?” a small voice asked nearby.

The sick knight slowly turned his head to see Jake standing by him with a worried look on his face. Too tired to reply, Nick just groaned as he played his head down on the railing. The sickness was really getting to him.

“Come on, lets go inside and lay down. That’ll be better.” Jake suggested, offering a band to help guide the sick knight, who followed willingly. 

It didn’t take long for the two to make their way down to their cabins where they were staying on their venture. Once they got to their beds, Jake guided Nick to lay down, which he effortlessly did automatically. The prince smiled once he saw the tired knight lay comfortably in the small space. Without thinking, he freely snuggled up to his lover and wrapped his arms around him. Even though it was a tight area, both laid in the bed comfortably close to each other. Already feeling a little bit better, Nick couldn’t help but smile and nudged closer towards his prince, burying his head against his body.

“Thank you.” he whispered to his lover. Was that the right word to call him? They did share a kiss to one another, so it shouldn’t be that awkward anymore.

The prince’s smile widen as he began to stroke the tired knight’s hair. This was what Nick needed all along, to just relax. Not worry about anything around him, just to finally rest up before things got serious again.

“Nick?” Jake asked quietly to the sleepy knight, who slowly opened his eyes up towards the prince.

It took Jake sometime to get the right wording into a proper question.

“Why were we in a hurry all of a sudden earlier the other day? Are we on a time-limit? Because right now, everything seems fine enough.” he said innocently.

It was hard to answer the question for Nick. He would have to explain the whole situation that started this journey in the first place. Taking a deep breath, Nick prepared himself a reasonable answer.

“We-..” he paused, placing his hand on his chest, remember what was there. “I’m the one on the time-limit… that’s why we were in a rush. A rush against my death.” He continued, trying not to give out too much.

“Wh-what happens if…” The prince was afraid to ask again but he wanted to know, just incase. “What happens if we- you run out of time?” 

The knight sighed deeply, glancing back down. “My heart gives out and… I die.” he said simply in a soft tone.

In the beginning of this journey, Nick didn’t care about the bomb in his chest. He just wanted to get the mission done. But now since he realized how much he’s put into the quest and actually began to care about what happens, he was terrified of the countdown.

Just because his motion sickness went away didn’t mean that Nick still wasn’t emotionally strained. He could could feel wetness from his eyes begin to seep out from the harden truth he told. Noticing his distress, Jake held the knight tighter to hopefully calm him down more. But the tears kept coming unintentionally, making Nick burry closer to Jake and cried softly. He didn’t feel embarrassed by his emotions anymore, he just had to let them out.

Sniffling a bit, Nick tried to settle down so he could speak again.

“Jake, I’m so scared… I don’t want to die.” he confessed, crying a little bit harder. As Jake saw the knight breakdown, he’d only hope to help him out more but all he could do at the time was hold him close like a child.

“You won’t die, I promise Nick. I promise you that.” was all Jake could say but it was the truth. He loved the knight that rescued him from his prison, now he wants to help out whatever was hurting his lover.

Looking down at the knight again, Jake met his eyes that pleaded him to not let go, which he didn’t intend to. The two gradually leaned closer towards each other, like the night before where they shared their first kiss. Luckily no one was around this time to speak up on them. As if time slowed down for them, Nick and Jake collided their lips against each other, tasting the flavors that they missed. Comfortably, Jake leaned in closer to deepen the kiss, making Nick wrap his arms around the small figure. He needed this, they both did, and they knew that about each other. Even though it was a rough start, they finally connected in a way that they could.

Taking a breather, Nick and Jake looked at each other in the eyes, showing each other that this was really happening. Nick had to tell the prince the full truth once he saw those silvery blue eyes in front of him.

“I-..I love you Jake, that’s why I don’t want to die.” he confessed breathlessly, still looking into his lovers eyes as his watered up again.

Jake, amazed by his words, stayed quiet for a bit before also adding his confession.

“I love you too Nick. Ever since I saw you at my window, I knew that you were the one.” he replied. giving out a small grin.

Nick had to grin as well, pleased with the response and happily to finally let go of that weight on his heart. It went better than expected and they both couldn’t be happier with their confessions to each other.

They then resumed their scene, sharing their love for one another. There were soft moans and the heat rose but luckily no one heard with the pouring rain cancelling out the other noises. If the end was truly coming soon, Nick and Jake were at least happy to share one more connection before all was lost. 


	8. Chapter 8

The rain didn’t stop and the thundering only begun, making it difficult for the two to fall asleep. Jake clung onto Nick tightly, frightened by the bursts of loud noises from above. Once the crashing of the thunder struck, Jake whispered and buried his head into his lover’s chest. A sudden jolt from the ship shook the two off of their small cabin bed, making them land on the deck hard. Still trying to wake up fully, Nick drowsily sat up and shook his head to clear it. Jake, still holding onto his knight tightly, started to shake in fear. Comforting the prince, Nick rubbed his shoulders gently as in he glanced up above wondering about the change of weather. Nick looked over at Jake, who was trying to calm down.

“You okay?” he softly asked the prince. Meeting his eyes, Jake took a deep breath before nodding his head.

The two slowly stood up, tiredly observing of whats around them. There was a sudden crash of thunder combined with a flash of lighting. Jake huddled onto his protector again, worried of the loud shaking.

Taking a deep breath of his own, Nick’s curiosity for what’s going on above grew immensely. Before deciding on whether to go, he glanced at Jake for a moment.

“Stay here, okay? I’ll be right back.” the knight confronted Jake, who instantly held him back, holding his arm tightly.

“Nick…” the prince whispered, desperately wanting his lover to stay with him.

Nick saw the innocent eyes of the prince, making him sigh as he looked closely at him. Placing his hand on his cheek, he gently stroked the warmth of it before leaning in and giving the prince a small peck of a kiss on his lips.

“Just stay put. It’ll be okay.” Nick reassured his frightened lover, who nodded understandably.

Giving one more glance at the prince, Nick turned away to run down the hall and quickly up onto the deck. All Jake could watch his knight leave his presents, frightened of what would happen upstairs.

—————————————————————————————————————————

With the rough winds above, it was difficult to open the hatch. But with a couple of pushes, Nick finally got it opened and was prepared to face anything.

Immediately getting hit by the rain, Nick covered his head with his hand as he carefully walked on board, observing the massive weather. He slowly made his way towards the forecastle deck at the front of the ship. The rusty boat rocked uneasily with the swaying of the wind, making Nick hold onto the railing to keep his balance. Oddly enough, he wasn’t seasick anymore, maybe Jake’s comfort really did help him out in the end. It took awhile, but once Nick got to the front of the ship, it seemed like nothing has changed.

Glancing over around one more time just incase, Nick took a deep breath before slowly turning around. Something swiftly passed Nick’s back though, making chills go through his spin and quickly turned around. With his sword immediately in hand, prepared for anything coming forth. His breath was shaky, probably from the cold atmosphere but also from fear of not knowing what was out here.

Feeling his heart speed up back to its massive pounding, Nick wasn’t ready for the pain to come back. Clenching onto his chest, he tried to stay focused of what was going around him but a sudden burst from his heart knocked him down to his knees, groaning in pain, He tried to look around but his vision started to already become blurry and the pounding in his chest grew, making it more difficult for Nick to process anything around him. Shutting his eyes closed, he tried to focus on his breathing to calm down.

“I wonder what the time limit is at now.” a voice echoed around the knight, who's eyes shot open in fear, looking around for the source. 

Nothing was around though, but Nick’s vision continued to fade.

 _‘Why did this have to happen now?’_ Nick’s mind shouted as he tried to regain himself.

For a second, he something pass by him speedily again, making him try to be more prepared. As he slowly got up, Nick turned around to see where the shadow could be but nothing has changed.

_‘But was he just-?!’_ Nick was perplexed, making him more paranoid.

With the lightning crashing again, Nick was startled, turning around again and was face to face with the enemy he met before, Shadow.

“Missed me?” the figure grinned and before Nick could strike at him, he disappeared in a poof giving outa chuckle.

Nick had to focus more but with the whispers surrounding him, he was completely on edge raising his fear inside. 

“Do you really think that bringing him back will really change anything?” The voice called out again, making Nick turn around completely towards the echo of it.

Nick closed his eyes shut for a minute to concentrate. _‘Don’t listen to them, don’t listen to them, just focus!’_ he told himself, trying to calm down.

Then, completely silence passed through all of a sudden.

Slowly opening his eyes, Nick glanced around him to see what happened, but nothing changed. Relaxing a bit as he lowered his weapon, Nick turned his head to see out towards the sea one more time, which was a bad move since the shadow appeared right in front of the knight, catching him off guard. 

“Time’s up.” the Shadow announced and with no time to react blasted Nick off, pushing him with great force further away life before. 

Nick was terrified at this point, screaming as he crashed down onto the deck, making a loud thud. Making contact with the hard ground only made Nick’s body hurt even more. He was not prepared for this battle, but he had to fight for the sake of the prince’s protection.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Hearing the loud thud from above, Jake gasped and looked up, terrified of what Nick was facing. Biting his lip, Jake desperately wanted to help out his knight, but how? Without even second guessing, Jake closed his eyes to send out a small prayer before getting up and made his way down the halls.

As he passed by Mason, who was passed out asleep nevertheless, the prince stopped to wake him up.

“Mason, wake up! We have to help Nick, he’s in trouble up there!” Jake whispered, shaking the knight to wake up.

Slowly trying to understand who’s talking, Mason rolled over, facing towards the prince now.

“Mmmm… 5 more minutes….” he mumbled, passing out again but Jake shook him once more.

“No, we don’t have enough time as it is! Please Mason!” tears started to form in Jake’s eyes as he pleaded for help.

With a long yawn, Mason finally woke up as he rubbed his eyes to see more clearly and sat up in from of the prince, placing a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

“Don’t worry Jake, we’ll help your man out.” Mason told the worried prince, giving him a small grin.

They then heard footsteps approach them and turned to see who it came from. The captain and the two pirates were also prepared with their weapons in place.

“Count us in, we never back down to fight, especially on our ship!” Smitters announced, wit the two nodding in agreement.

The prince felt a little better to have more help but once another crash shook the boat, he was back to being fearful as he was startled by noise.

The group quickly made their way up on the deck. Unprepared for the wind, they pushed open the hatch and with Jake running out first, he saw his nightmare coming true, just like before.

The Shadow was gripping onto the injured, almost unconscious knight as he dangled him over the edge of the ship.

Jake gasped, as he felt either the rain or tears rolling down on his face.

“Dont!” he cried out, hoping that the suffering would stop.

The Shadow quickly turned his head towards the prince and gave him a smirk, knowing just what to do.

“Oops.” he teased as he dropped Nick into the chaotic sea below.

Jake’s heart instantly sank as he saw his knight disappeared into the rushing ocean, knowing that he’ll never see him again. He could feel boring in his body as he unintentionally grabbed a sword that was hooked on one of the pirate’s belt who was nearby and charged towards his real enemy, screaming in anger.

Before the prince could get to him to attack, the Shadow vanished. Huffing in frustration, Jake glanced around to see where his enemy has gone to, clenching onto his sword.

The three pirates and Mason froze still to watch. The captain and his two mates were astonished to see such change in the prince that they just met. Mason, though didn’t want to admit it, but also felt instant sorrow to see his companion, his first friend get lost into the sea.

Until he could feel his emotions start to show, the other knight tightened his grip on his own sword and charged as well to help the prince.

Not used to fighting, the prince was already exhausted chasing around the Shadow that he desperately wanted to murder. Never in his life did he feel so much anger in his system but that moment as he saw his lover disappear, his body was boiling.

With the Shadow vanishing again, Jake and Mason, who was next to him, frantically glanced around to spot their target. The crashing and thundering of the rain didn’t frightened Jake anymore, he was too focused to notice anything around him anyway.

But with the bad winds it rocked the boat forcefully making the crew loose balance. The captain, quickly getting up ran towards the quarter deck to reach the wheel. As everyone slowly got up, smoke started to fill up the ship. Not afraid anymore, Jake prepared himself for anything.

“Oh darling, if only you would have learned like before…” A voice echoed through the smoke. He knew she would be here, the prince tightened his grip on the sword.

From observing Nick and Mason in battle, Jake picked up a few techniques that he has yet to try out in action.

“Come out! I’m not afraid anymore!” Jake spoke up with sudden confidence. He had to, for the sake of his life.

Appearing in front of the prince, the witch froze him still with her magic and looked at him in the eyes.

“You’re grounded.” she told him before raising her hands up to send the massive ocean onto the deck, crashing the ship in half with the screams of the passengers still on board. It then all turned black, with the occasional flashed of lighting in the distance. 


	9. Chapter 9

Darkness was the only sight Nick could see, with the occasional screams in the distance. Flashes of pictures and voices came into his mind but that still didn’t stir the unconscious knight.

But one voice stuck out from the others. A cry for his name, pleading him to wake up.

_“Nick, wake up! Please, I need you!”_ the voice sounded too familiar, just like…

_“Nick!!!”_ It was Jake’s voice screaming for him.

The knight gasped for air as his eyes shot opened. His breathing was heavy and choppy with his heart still racing on the clock.

Trying to focus and recognize his surroundings, Nick glanced around to see where he was. Apparently he was laying in sand in a small bay with the water saying towards him. Nick tempted to get up but his body refused, pushing him straight back onto the ground. With a deep sigh of defeat and exhaustion, Nick stayed put to rest up his body.

Thinking back to what happened on the ship, the scenes were blurry, except for one part, right before the chaos started. He was there, laying in the knight’s arms. Peacefully asleep, Nick could always remember the prince close to him. His memory seemed to flash forward to the incident and to Jake shouting his name.

Suddenly, the knight sat up straight. That’s where he heard his name being called out! Remembering the location, hr knew that he had to get back to the ship. Nick swiftly got onto his feet and started to spirant away until he paused abruptly. _‘Was the ship still there, or was it gone too with everyone-?’_

Nick shook his head forcefully, tightening the grip in his hands, fisting them up. He couldn’t think like that, he just had to get out of here and find where the others went. 

Placing his hand on his chest, the knight could feel his heartbeat at an alarming rate already. He took a deep breath to calm himself, knowing that he had to be more careful. Giving a quick glance around, Nick took a sept forward to find his way out of this deserted beach.

—————————————————————————————————————————

The sun was already beginning to rise, meaning that Nick was walking through the forest for the rest of that night, how ever long that was. Unfortunately, he wasn’t getting anywhere with his damaged body yet again. The knight was lost, in pain and depressed for the second time, just like when he lost…

Nick stopped in his tracks. Not only did her loose his friend long ago, he also lost the love of his life, his best friend that he made in the beginning, and his was towards finishing this mad quest. But all was gone too quickly. Being hit by the sudden thought, Nick couldn’t help but breakdown once more. As the tears stream down his face, the knight crouched low to the ground and covered his face to keep from crying but he couldn’t stop. He was exhausted, emotionally and physically. Nick desperately wanted to move on, to find his prince and take him home, like he was suppose to but that didn’t happen. He was too weak, too unfocused to fight back. Sorrow soon turned into frustration, making the tired knight scream at the top of his lungs.

“God damn it!!!” he shouted, at himself, at the curse her still had, at the whole world that had to share its burden.

As he tried to calm down his nerves, Nick took heavy breaths to hopefully make it easier for him to concentrate.

In the distance, the struggling knight faintly heard shouting from not too far away. Curious of the contents, Nick slowly looked up and gradually made his way towards the sound. Once he could hear the voices, Nick could vaguely recognize them.

“...'n wha' on earth do ye expect us t' do now?!” 

“Well I dunno ‘Captain’, why don't ye do yer job 'n figure it out?!” 

To Nick surprise, the voices belonged to the pirates who helped him and the others before. Poking his head out from the trees, Nick eagerly gasped as he saw the three pirates wondering around the completely damaged boat. One of crew members was laying on the ground, where Captain Smitters was stalling back and forth infuriated, while the other tried to examine the pieces of what was left of the ship.

“Guys!” Nick called out as he ran out of the forest and towards the crew.

Three heads turned towards the direction of the voice and smiled hopefully.

“Nick!” the three cheered as they jumped up to meet him.

Glancing around once he saw the area better, Nick’s worry grew as he realized that the main two were definitely not with them.

“Oh thank goodness ye're back from th' dead!” one cheered.

“We thought ye were a goner!” the captain added.

“…Like th’ other two!” concluded the third.

The knight’s eyes widen in fear. “What do you mean? Where are Jake and Mason?!” he asked nervously, hoping beyond hope that they truly weren’t gone.

The three hesitated as they glanced at one another, making Nick more anxious.

“We, uh, dunno. Everythin' disappeared in a flash.” explained the captain uneasily.

Nick’s heart immediately sank as he shifted his eyes to the three pirates who were in denial. ‘They couldn’t be gone. Not this soon…’ He told himself, controlling his emotions.

Trying to think back to what happened, Nick couldn’t remember before it was all a blur.

“But we did see that scary madam afore everythin’ disappeared.” noted one of them, making Nick’s eyes widen.

“A woman? …That witch!” Nick growled, remembered her from before.

“Yeah, that’s wha’ she was. Wit’ her magic, freezin’ up that young lad.” The captain explained.

Instantly, the knight’s blood started to burn to a boil once he heard that his prince was hurt.

“He did put up a good fight though, especially for his size.” one of the crew members commented.

Astonished to hear what his prince fight for, Nick relaxed for a bit before trying to brainstorm on what to do next.

_‘How on earth am I going to get them back if I don’t even know where she-…’_ His mind stopped once he knew the exact location of her whereabouts. 

Back to the beginning, of course.

It took Nick more than a week to even get to the deserted castle, that was suppose to be the mission in the first place.

With a deep sigh and placing his fingers on his forehead, the tired knight really didn’t want to go all the way back. But upsettingly shaking his head, he knew that he had to, for the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of saving his prince once again.

As he collected himself, Nick glanced up to look at the three again, who were bored out of their minds and then glanced at the destroyed ship, getting an idea.

“You know, I think we can make something out of this useless ship.” Nick suggested, walking towards it as he looked at the boat thoughtfully.

“Wha’ are ye callin’ ‘useless’ ye-?!” the captain offensively shouted at the knight but one of his are embers shushed him.

“Maybe he actually has a good idea!” he excitingly said and followed the knight to help out.

“Hey, me ideas were good enough, right?!” Smitters pointed out but no one commented back since they all followed Nick. Groaning disproved, even the captain followed behind.

Hoping that his plan will work, Nick was back to focus on saving the prince once again. 


	10. Chapter 10

Without wasting no time whatsoever, the three pirates worked on trying to scrap up useful material from their wretched boat to create something beneficial for the rescue mission once more. Nick also prepared himself by fixing his weapon and armor. Even though he was not a mastered blacksmith, he could remember the little steps he’d learned back in the day.

As he focused on his metalworking, the only thing on Nick’s mind was what could possibly be happening to his prince and best friend. Sending chills down his spine, the images that popped into the knight’s mind distracted him to make him accidentally cutting deep into his hand. Suddenly feeling the pain, Nick yelled and jolted backward, dropping his work abruptly. Hissing from the pain, he glanced at the wound that began to bleed out, making him suck on it for a moment to stop the bleeding. Oddly enough, that made him think back to a conversation he had with the prince from awhile ago.

_ “So why don’t you sleep at night? Are you really nocturnal, a vampire? Is that you’re really kidnapping me, to suck my blood?” _

That thought put a smirk on Nick’s face for that moment, remembering how annoying that little sucker was. Though, one thought led to another, deepening the darkness into his mind. Shaking his head to refocus, Nick sighed and looked downwards at his accomplished work.

Even though it took quite some time to work on, the metal scraps were turned into proper armor that could possibly fit the knight. Nearby was an upgraded sword, with a better handle and tougher blade. After fitting on the new armor that wore perfectly, Nick slowly grabbed his new weapon to feel how it stood. Fortunately, it went pretty well with how he’d imagined.

_‘Let’s just hope this actually fucking works.’_ he thought to himself, not yet testing it out.

After thinking for a second more, Nick stepped away from his workspace and towards the first again. As the other men continued to work on their projects, Nick made his way deeper into the path to find a better area to practice his new sword. Once he felt like he was in a good spot, Nick tightened the grip on his weapon with both hands and took a deep breath before swinging the blade against one of the trees nearby. The first hit was a simple one, just to see how the blade felt against something hard. But once Nick did the motion, an image flashed before him.

The first image was of a boy, all bruised up with tattered clothes, looking up with crying eyes at a tall shadow covering his tiny body. Flashing in motion to the boy screaming and running away from the shadow that was chasing him.

Trying to concentrate, Nick shook his head and heavily huffed out a breath of anger. Tightening the grip of his sword, he swung at the tree again when the second image popped up.

This time it was the same boy, a little bit older now but still having tattered clothing and marks on his face and body. The boy was huddling in a dark valley as rain poured down on him. The look on his face became more depressed as he held himself close together. Flashing again in motion to the boy now being greeted by a young woman in a cloak with other children like him around her. The woman’s face was bright and welcoming, bringing the boy closer towards her.

This relaxed Nick a little bit more, as he charged at the tree’s trunk in the middle. Still focused on getting it right, the knight pulled back the sword, that came out smooth from where it dented. Taking one more deep breath, he prepared himself for another swing at it.

With another image flashing, the boy, who has grown up some, was fighting a group of older kids, who were much bigger than him. There was yelling involved but all was mute. Then it panned to the next scene where the smaller boy was being beaten by the bigger ones, where some were laughing at his cries. That should’ve been the end of it but one more image appeared with the three elders looking over at the group. They then forcefully took the injured boy back to a church nearby as the group of other kids were laughing and pointing at the troubled boy. Unexceptionally, another imaged flashed by in a red filter. The boy that was being dragged off by the three older men to a long table that had chains to tie up the screaming child. But no one heard his screams or cries since the elders continued their preparations as they fired up a hot pallet. Struggling to get loose out of the restraints, the boy glanced over at the steaming metal stick that was coming right towards him, making him intensively more scared as he continued to struggle to get out of the hell chamber. As the red-hot blazing metal came closer towards the boy’s body, the image suddenly became pitch black as the boy’s cries were still heard.

The screaming was carried over by Nick, who sharply forced his metal sword slicing right through the tree, immediately cutting it in half and making it tumble down behind. Panting violently, Nick stared at what was left of the tree as he thought back to those cursed images. Frustratingly, he placed his fists on to his head to try to relax him spinning mind. Shutting his eyes close, he tried to concentrate on only his breathing and the sounds around him, nothing more as he was determined to push away those painful thoughts and memories. It’s been too long since he’d thought of his past, he wanted to forget about where he came from, but those images still haunted him in his sleep to this day.

Yet, the night before, when he was laying with his prince was the most peaceful sleep he had in years. Just thinking about him already made the knight’s heart take it as ease. Gently placing a hand on his chest, Nick remembered the knight where the prince toughed it before and he finally felt what a heartbeat actually felt like. Without a doubt, the knight knew that he fell in love with the prince that night where they shared that first kiss. 

Already feeling his eyes start to water up from the sadness by missing his prince, Nick shook his head to get rid of the foolish emotion. He had to concentrate on his mission that started in the beginning, to get the prince and bring him home.

Out of nowhere, Nick heard an explosion that came from the beach where the wrecked ship was. Altered, he rushed back towards the location. Prepared to face anything, Nick was stunned to see everything in flames. Widening his eyes at the sight, he scanned the ruined environment to see if anyone survived and saw some of the pirates laying on the ground. Gasping quietly, Nick ran up to one of the unconscious bodies to check up on them. There were some burns marks on the clothing and skin. With a worried look, the knight carefully glanced around to see if anyone else was nearby. He heard muffled crying that came from deep into the part of the ship that was still standing and gradually made his way towards the sound.

Once the sniffling started to get louder, Nick poked his head in the covered area and tipped-toed to a shadow who appeared to be on of the crew members. As he got closer to them, the knight kneeled down at the huddled figure and gently placed his hands on the shivering shoulders. The connection scared the pirate, making him gasp as he suddenly looked at the knight with his eyes expanded.

“Y-You’re here, I-I’m actually not alone!” the frightened pirate cheered and hugged the surprised knight.

“What happened? I wasn’t gone for that long.” Nick asked, confused about the sudden destruction as they operated from the encounter.

 Calming down, the pirate’s eyes grew from the event.

“I-It was massive, a beast as the size of the Jolly Roger! Covering the land with just it’s shadow. Then suddenly, everything was bright red. Luckily I ran for cover, but the others-…” He had to stop, frightened by the cursed image.

Trying to understand the event, Nick distinctly remembered the dragon when he first arrived at Jake’s tower. But the followed events came afterward, meeting the prince, sharing eye contact, holding him closer as they escaped, seeing how happy he was once he was finally fee. The knight’s eyes increased largely, seeing every scene clear as day.

_‘But, if the dragon came by so quickly…’_ his mind wondered, opening up a sudden realization.

Gradually standing up, the knight turned slightly to run out of the broken ship and out to figure out their location.

“Wait, where are you-?! Don’t leave me!!” the crew member called out to the knight and followed him right behind.

Catching up to him, the pirate curiously glanced over at Nick, who stood still, figuring out where the dragon has flown off to. 

All of a sudden, he perked up once he heard the roars of the creature and looked above him to see the giant wings from agar, hovering over the forest. It looked like he was flying toward a small building in the distance. Realizing what the buildings looked like, the knight’s eyes enlarged as he recognized the familiar tower where that connection happened.

Breathlessly, Nick was astounded of how relatively close her actually was to his destination once again. It felt as if the whole journey throughout took longer than it became. Not sure to be thrilled or cautious, Nick took a deep breath to prepare himself as he ran through the forest and towards the castle.

The crew member jolted as he saw the knight run again, trying to catch up as he huffed since he was not used to such extreme action.

Focusing all of his entry in getting towards his target, the speed of Nick’s feet hitting and ground and his heartbeat was in sync. Even though his heart was pounding as if it was going to burst again, he didn’t care. The knight just wanted to get his prince and protect him for as long as he can. 


	11. Chapter 11

Trapped back into his cage, the heartbroken prince couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his face. That last memory of his dear knight damaged his soul, his heart, his everything. Feeling more alone than ever before, the prince stared down at the floor where he was kneeling on, blurred by his wet eyes. Once the touch of her nails dug into his shoulder, the prince gasped quietly but stayed down.

“My sweet dear prince, surely you’re still not upset about what happened? You knew the consequences, yet you chose the wrong choice, which makes everything so much more difficult.” the witch explained to Jake, who was trying to block her out.

“I hope you understand now why that you have to stay here with me. Because you’re dangerous, no one will understand.” she continued sternly.

_‘He understood. Not at first, but he still stayed with me.’_ Jake thought as he remembered the encounter with Nick when he first saw what happened.

Thinking about his lover hurt him even more as he closed his eyes to let more tears out. For once in his life, as long as he could remember, he actually felt something more when he was on the adventure with his new friends. He was actually free, to experience what was out there, even if it was terrifying at first. But his knight was always close to him, always there to protect him.

Now he was gone, with everyone else in a flash. He didn’t know if Mason was still around, but he didn’t want to think too much into it since it brought him so much sorrow.

As Sofie continued to sustain her prize possession, she looked up from the depressed prince and towards her crystal ball where she had eyes on her other prisoner. The other knight was effortlessly trying to get out of his cell.

——————————————————————————————————-

Already trying once more, Mason ran towards the metal bars of his prison to hopefully break them but to no avail, not even a dent as he got knocked out by hitting his head and landing hard on the ground. Feeling a major headache already, he glanced up seeing everything completely blurry. He shook his head a couple of times to try to clear it but even that didn’t work. Frustrated, the knight pouted as he sat up, arms crossed over his chest.

_‘Damn, this blows…’_ he thought to himself before hatching an idea.

Stumbling to get up from the dizziness that he still had in his head, Mason noticed some dust particles that formed when he sat down. Curiously looking around, he slowly walked over towards one of the walls and rubbed his finger along it, seeing it get dirty instantly.

A smile formed on the knight’s face once he figured out what to do. Without a moment to lose, he rubbed his hand against the wall again to collect more dust. Even though his hands were turning black, he was excited about his idea that will hopefully work in the end. After cleaning his cell room to be spotless, a media pile of dirt was gathered by the bars that were keeping him from escaping.Getting a little too excited, Mason rested down in his pocket, remembering the equipment that he always kept incase. just like this one and took out a couple of small pieces of wood. As he quickly rubbed the pieces of wood together a couple of times, a flame formed, burning the wood to its core. Not paying too much attention, the flame burnt on the “genius’s’ finger as he held it, dropping it suddenly and made contact with the dust below. The reaction happened just a bit too fast before Mason could take for cover and exploded the small room, filling it with smoke. Coughing the dust and saying it away, Mason squinted his eyes to see that his plan did work successfully to make a bigger intended hole out of the bars that were trapping him.

“Nice!” Mason commented on his accomplishment before coughing out more dust that was in the atmosphere.

After dusting himself off, the knight glanced around to find his weapons. Grabbing them quickly, he prepared himself find the prince and escape from this crazy place.


	12. Chapter 12

Not knowing what time or day it was made Nick extremely on edge but also content. As they still made their way through the forest and towards the rocky environment, the knight exactly knew where he was heading, just like in the beginning. Behind him though, the small pirate was huffing and puffing as he tried to catch up with the quick knight.

“Are.. we… there… yet?” the pirate asked as he was running out of breath.

Noticing his struggle, Nick glanced down from where he was climbing and stepped down to meet the exhausted traveler.

“Tell you what, how about you stay and wait here by any chance Jake or Mason would escape, that way it will be easier for the both of us.” the knight explained in great detail, hoping that the pirate will understand.

Clearly too tired to process any of his words, the pirate laid down on the hard rock to try to rest up. Rolling his eyes, Nick figured that he understood his plan. Looking back at the rocks, the castle was closer than he’d expected it to be, making the knight slightly anxious. But he took a deep breath to try to calm down and took a step forward before he was held back slightly. Glancing back around he saw that the worn-out pirate was holding out something small in his hands. Curious about what it could be, Nick looked at it more closely, seeing that it was a locket. Puzzled by the contents of it, Nick pressed the small button that was on the front and revealed the graphics of a testing arrow. He looked back at the pirate, who had tears in his eyes.

“It was Captain’s before it… all happened. Supposedly when you hold it, the arrow points to what your heart desires the most.” he explained, trying not to cry as he remembered his crew. 

Giving him reassurance, the knight placed a gentle hand on the shivering shoulder of the smaller man.

“Thank you,” he whispered, making the crew member give out a small smile.

As he looked down at the compass, the arrow spun a couple of times before stopping to point directly behind him. Slowly turning around, the knight knew exactly where the arrow was pointing towards, the castle where he once traveled to.

Taking another deep breath, Nick clenched onto his guidance and ran forward, remembering step by step on where to go to save his prince.

———————————————————————————————————————

The walk towards the entrance to the castle felt too familiar. Now facing this alone made Nick’s anxiety grow incredibly fast, but he had to keep moving on, especially since he was so close. Clenching onto his weapon tightly, the knight made his way through the castle once again, like it was muscle memory. Oddly enough though, the dragon was not to be seen, which puzzled Nick.

_‘Shouldn’t he be here guarding the place?’_ Nick questioned but didn’t want to waste any more time as he quickly ran through the empty halls.

Feeling every pump of blood from his heart as he took a step, Nick’s body was beginning to slowly shut down but he wasn’t going to let it happen, not right now. Trying to stay focused, Nick exhaustingly pushed himself forward into a new room that he’s never been before.

The wide open space confused the knight as he entered, echoes filling up the room with his steps. Mystified, Nick’s eyes glanced around the area since it was too quiet but no one was around.

_‘Where-…’_ the thought was completely cut off from the intense pain that attacked Nick’s body once again.

However, this time, it felt incredibly unbearable as if he was right by the source that causes the pain. Striking each pressure points and nerves, the knight lowered his weakened body to his knees as he tried to resist the struggle. The electrifying shocks that ran through his system increased, making Nick groan in pain. He tried to control his body to not give in, but it was becoming wearing each second. He hated this feeling, he wanted it to stop but it might not until the very end. 

Catching rough breaths to calm himself, Nick tried to glance up to see what or who could be causing all of this a sudden. Just barely noticing, the struggling knight saw a glimpse of her. Breathing through his teeth in anger, Nick slowly resisted the shocking pain to get a better look at his new enemy. There she was again, watching him with pleading eyes as his pain grew. Quickly shifting his eyes, he saw the prince, his prince, sitting next to the evil sorcerous with tears in his eyes, desperately pleading for this torture to end. Seeing those broken tears only made Nick more forceful against the pain as he gradually stood up on his feet weakly.

“I must’ve truly underestimated you,  knight, but how long can you last with that heart of yours?” the malevolent witch commented as she tapped her fingers gently on the throne she was watching from. 

Unprepared for what’s to come, Nick glared at her before he was hit by a massive strike of electrifying shock straight through his whole body to his heart, pressuring it keeping in sharp pain. Once he felt everything, the knight screamed in convulsion as he dropped to his knees and clench onto himself to stop the massive pain but it just kept increasing.

Unable to watch, Jake closed his eyes shut with tears still streaming down his face. This pain, this agony shouldn’t be happening, ever. Nick didn’t deserve what he was going through, no one did. Incapable of helping his knight, the love of his life, Jake stayed put with shaking in fear and sorrow.

Watching the powerless knight suffer brought a smile to Sofie, knowing that her power will always be too much for anyone, especially for a weakling like himself. 

With a sudden break of the concentration, Sofie was distracted by the falling chandelier from above. Getting a rest from her power, Nick tiredly glanced up to see what caused the crash. Jake, also looking up to find the source, gasped once he saw Mason, who was confidently holding onto his bow in his hand tightly, glaring at the witch. With just enough time to space, the knight jumped down from where he was and ran over towards his pal to protect him as Nick rained his strength. 

Deeply glaring back at her new prey, Sofie gave out a small laugh before snapping her fingers. “Two can play at this game,” she said, knowing what’s to come.

“Don’t worry Nick, I got thi-!” Mason told his friend confidently until immediately stopping as he was sliced open across the torso.

“Nooo!!!” Nick and Jake screamed in unison as they saw their friend collapse to the floor with blood splattering everywhere. 

The knight has seen many disturbing scenes in his life but watching his best friend get killed right in from of him was the most painful event he’s been through. Even with his heart still throbbing in pain, Nick felt nothing else in his nerves. 

A figure started to for in front of Nick, revealing the attacker, The Shadow held onto his own weapon that he used to kill his first target and looked back at the stunned knight that was in front. 

“One down, one to go,” he growled with a smirk on his face, staring down at Nick. 

The horrified feeling that sank into Nick’s chest quickly converted into a fiery rage as his eyes turned red. Gripping onto his own sword rigidly until his knuckles turned white, Nick rose to his feet as he breathed heavily in anger. Staring dead eye at his enemy that he wanted to destroy, the knight charged straight at the Shadow, roaring in anger. But that didn’t stir the enemy, as he braced himself for the attack. Not letting himself back down, Nick thrashed his sword with great force or wrath. With each hit against the weapons, the knight didn’t stop as he was determined to bring the overpowering pain that he was feeling in his burning heart to his enemy. Blocking his every attack, the Shadow only brought more force towards the knight, trying to wear him out.

Impressed by the sudden heat that rose in the room, Sofie continued to watch the battle and glanced at her prince beside her. Jake didn’t want to believe that any of this was happening before his eyes, he refused. But seeing Mason, the kindest knight that he’d ever met fall to his death by the same killer that hurt his lover in the first place, Jake’s emotions were mixing up altogether. As he tried to keep control of his frustration, depression, anxiety, all of the emotions inside of him, the prince’s heart begun to pump increasingly, making his body tense. Taking in too much pain, Jake shut his eyes closed and screamed in a grievance, sending out another blast of forceful winds throughout the whole building.

As the two still fought, Nick sensed the power that came from the prince and paused for a second to glance at him, who was in great distress. Taking the chance though, the Shadow pounded the knight to the ground as he was distracted. Pinning the weakling down, the Shadow rose his weapon up to bash it into his target’s body but was immediately flown off of the knight as the force came through them.

Having some time to catch his breath, Nick glanced towards the side to see his prince standing up confidently with his hands out as he held force against his two targets, being the witch and Shadow. Urgently reacting, Nick stood up with his weapon ready and stabbed directly into the Shadow who was nearby, just like what he saw happen to Mason. As the sword impaled through the enemy’s body, he disintegrated into ashes, falling to the ground. Nick’s breathing was heavy as he could still feel anger in his system but his body was not in good conditions from the battle. Weakly looking up, he saw his prince in control of the witch, holding her up against the air. He could feel that Jake was in no mood in stepping down at this point, he knew how to handle this on his own.

Sofie, struggling from the force of the prince’s power, gasped for her life and looked down at him.

“I see now… You truly are dangerous my dear prince,” she said, with limited air supply.

Focusing all of his energy on keeping her still, Jake narrowed his eyes at the ‘caretaker’ who he used to believe.

“I’m not dangerous, I’m simply protecting the ones I love,” he replied without backing down and thrust her back against the stone walls, making a darn in them as she hit them hard.

Once the witch collapsed on the ground, she unexpectedly disappeared in a cloud of shadow. The empty castle echoed with the winds of the ghosts running away from the chaos. 

Without realizing how it all happened, Jake blinked a couple of times to get back into reality. As he heard his knight struggle in pain to get up, the prince rushed towards him to help him out. Sliding down on his knees to the ground, Jake came close to Nick side and held onto him tightly in a hug.

“Nick, I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean… I tried to…” Jake’s voice was shaking from his nerves as he was afraid of his mistake. But he was slowly being pulled back from the hug tightly to face his lover.

“Jake, it’s okay. It’s over now.” Nick simply told his petrified prince who’s expression changed to shock.

As they stared at each other in silence, Jake worriedly brought his hand close towards his knight’s injured face to whip some of the blood that was splattered on him, probably from the Shadow’s or Mason’s.

Jake gasped as his eyes shifted towards the laying body nearby that was covered in blood. He had to close them shut from the disturbing image that was in front of him. As his shoulders began to shiver, Jake couldn’t help himself as he burst into tears, holding onto his knight tighter for comfort. Nick held his prince closer as he glanced at his friend’s corpse, not realizing that even he could also feel tears roll down his face. He remembered how many times he’d had heartbreaks through this journey, but this was a different kind of pain as if his heart was demolished by the flames that were still burning from the beginning.

With the two lovers holding each other close, the deserted castle remained silent, with nothing else in its presence. Even though the knight and prince were exhilarated that the suffering has finally ended, all they could feel in their souls was devastation from the loss of their dear friend. 


	13. Chapter 13

It’s been long past 7 days since the knight started his journey to find the prince he fell in love with, but he didn’t feel anything in his heart, even though he was still alive. Was he truly alive? Did he make it through the pain that he was suffering from the very beginning? Apparently.

Their journey wasn’t over just yet though. He still had to get his prince home. It took them awhile to gather themselves but they were slowly on their way towards the kingdom of Cardiff. It’s been so long since Jake remembered his home, his real home, not a caged area where he slept. He should be thrilled to go home, to go back to where peace lived but his emotions were all depressed, ever since the last battle.

As soon as he felt shivers through his body, Jake embraced closer towards his knight. Standing right next to him, the tall figure glanced down to the smaller one and gave him a sympathetic look before leaning in closer to touch his lips with his own. The warmth of his body made Jake slightly calmer as he held onto his knight to deepen the kiss. Jake was terrified of losing everyone in his life, but thankfully his love was still with him, hopefully for the rest of eternity.

Still, on foot, the two made great progress through the mountains and plains towards their final destination. As they stopped to rest by a cliff, the prince looked out to see what was afar. Everything seemed calm, but that wasn’t how he felt inside. Walking up to him, Nick gently placed his hand on his… boyfriend’s shoulder. He still wasn’t used to calling that title for Jake but that’s what he was to him, a person he loved. 

“You alright?” Nick asked quietly, trying not to scare Jake since he was already emotionally strained by the previous events.

Taking a slow deep breath, Jake glanced over at Nick before looking out at the afar kingdom.

“It’s just… been so long, what if they don’t recognize me? What if they won’t accept me at all?” Jake wondered, worried about the outcome of his return home.

Comforting him, Nick gently stroked his cheek.

“They’ve been waiting for you ever since this mess started. I’m sure they are thrilled to see you come back, no matter how much you’ve changed. No one else volunteered to start the quest because they thought it was all a hoax. But we’re going to prove them wrong, that there truly is a Prince of Cardiff.” the knight reassured his majesty. 

Lightening up the mood, Jake couldn’t hide his smile anymore. Gradually reaching down to his side, he grabbed onto his lover’s hand. The prince felt so much safer than he was stuck in the lonesome tower ever since he held onto his knight, swinging out of that window.

“It’ll be okay, I promise.” were the words that never broke. Nick was his knight in shining armor, just like in his dream. 

A smile also formed on the knight’s face as he saw his prince go back to his old joyful self, that he had to admit he’d missed dearly. Yeah, he was irritating at the beginning, but the stubborn knight slowly warmed up to him to even fall in love with the little troublemaker.

“Let’s get you home,” Nick told Jake, who's eyes brightened up.

“As long as you’re there.” the prince replied and with one more kiss they shared, they were off to go back to finish this quest.

———————————————————————————————

They gradually made their way down to the small valley that was surrounding the castle, Jake’s home. Even though he should be relieved to go back to his kingdom, his nerves were starting to get to him. Luckily Nick, his boyfriend that he felt comfortable enough to call him, was right by him the whole time as they slowly walked through the grassy plains before spitting a couple of villagers.

As the unfamiliar figures passed through, they were being stared at by the locals. This made Jake even more nervous as he held onto Nick for protection. The knight was also getting suspicious by the looks, hoping that they won’t get attacked.

Once he spotted the familiar figure, one of the locals, who was a small farmer boy, ran through the fields, through the village, passing by the people and ran up towards one of the guards who as at the entrance of the castle. 

The guard glared at the smaller boy who was tugging on the metal chains that he was wearing.

“Be gone peasant, unless you have real news.” the guard told the small boy.

“But he’s here! The Lost Prince is in the fields!” he explained. 

Not believing it, the guard narrowed his eyes and shook his head disapproved. Suddenly, another person, an older man ran up towards the guard as well.

“The prince, he’s finally here! In the fields!” he confirmed, making the guard’s eyes widen in astonishment.

Without a moment to lose, the guard moved swiftly as he gathered up on a horse, with other guards getting ready as well, following their orders, and charged forward towards the destination. The boy and man watched in amazement at the royalty.

As they continued to walk through the fields, Nick’s body was in deep distress. With every step he took, the knight felt the heaviness of his muscles. Having to stop from exhaustion, Nick sank down to his knees suddenly, still breathing heavy to try to catch it.

“I’m sure we’re close now right? …Nick?” Jake questioned and when he didn’t hear a response, he glanced back around to see his knight down on the ground.

Gasping in fear, Jake ran back to aid his knight. Nick’s head was throbbing, along with his muscles pumping blood slowly. His heart though was still in good conditions, other than pounding the blood. In front of him, Nick exhaustingly glanced up to see his prince look at him with concerned eyes, worried about his lover’s condition. 

Breathlessly, Nick’s head dropped down from the pressure that it held inside. Jake’s eyes started to water up as he tried to give comfort to his knight.

“Nick, it’s going to be alright. We’re almost there, just hang in there, okay? Stay with me!” Jake told him quietly but the pounding in Nick’s head was getting too much, not being able to hear him clearly.

Hearing in the distance, the prince perked up his head to see a group of horsemen running towards them. His eyes widen in amazement and looked back at his tired knight, noticing that he had his eyes closed.

“Don’t worry Nick, we’re going to get help soon. I promise.” the young prince informed his lover.

The horses came closer towards the huddled figures. Jake watched them with horrified eyes as he held onto Nick tightly. As the horses slowed down, the soldier who was on the tallest horse glared down at the frightened lad.

“We were informed of the lost prince’s return. Are you he that has steed back to his lands?” he asked in a formal matter.

Hesitant at first, Jake knew how to handle this, like the prince he was becoming. As he stood up slowly, he looked at the solider directly.

“It is I, Jake Sullivan, Prince of Cardiff. I have returned home, but my knight has been injured from his journey in saving me,” he announced, a little surprised by how formal he presented his introduction.

The guard was indeed surprised to hear that the news was true. But he was still concerned by the injured man who was next to him as he glanced at him, still on the ground unresponsive. With a glance back at the prince’s sentimental eyes, the guard straightened up as he looked at the other knights. 

“Come on men, let's get the prince come and this knight to safety.” ordered the guard, shifting his horse. 

The prince’s brightened up at the generous guard and glanced back at Nick, who was barely conscious and helped him up. 

“We’re almost home my sweet knight,” Jake whispered to Nick and gently pressed his lips against the knight’s head.

Gradually opening his eyes to look up at his prince, Nick’s breathing became at ease for awhile as he was being held up. Being mounted up onto the horse, the prince and knight followed the group towards the castle, Jake’s true home.

Starting to get anxious, Jake looked up to see that the castle, the place where he truly belonged to. His heart pounded deeply in his chest from excitement, the realization that he was finally home. He turned slightly to see how his knight was doing. Nick, still exhausted with tired drooping eyes, slowly dropped his head onto his lover’s shoulder to relax for a bit. As the prince smile widen, he gently patted his knight’s head.

“You did good Nick, you deserve this,” Jake told him left and turned to kiss his cheek, 

Happy that the long, stressful quest has come to an end, Nick had a couple of minutes to rest up before anything else came up.


	14. Chapter 14

Coming closer towards the glorious castle, Jake didn’t know that he was holding his breath. Nick, who was now awake, was also in awe since he’s never been this close, let alone inside of the castle. As they were being led towards into the building, now on their feet, Jake held his injured knight. Glancing around, the two were amazed by the stunning and delightful architecture of the castle. After seeing much of a massacre from the outside world, it was rewarding to come back to something so peaceful that the two could enjoy. 

Continuing to walk forward, they were led through a massive wooden and golden doors that had markings of something that Jake recognized, remembering where he belonged. Before them was a long hall, with glass windows that had glass mires on them, shining color through the light. Nick has never been in such an exquisite architecture as his eyes were glued to the scenery, he didn’t realize that Jake has stopped and bumped into him slightly.

“Hey, you okay…?” the knight was about to ask before looking up and seeing the royal king and queen. Jake, who was frozen to the bone, couldn’t believe his eyes. It’s been 10 years since he’s seen his parents or anyone for that matter.

Nick was also shocked to see the king and queen. He’d never thought that he would be able to see them in person but here he was, in the castle, to finish his long search of the prince of Cardiff and bring him home. He swallowed deeply, trying not to get too nervous before presenting himself. 

“You royal highnesses, King Aleksander and Queen Kelsey of Cardiff. It has been 10 years since the young prince has disappeared and we have been searching for him ever since…” the guard, who led them to the castle started to say before Nick could get a word out.

Already getting instantly annoyed, the knight weakly stepped forward, pushing the guard back as he presented himself on his own.

“I’ll just cut to the chase. It’s been long passed a week since I started to set out to find the ‘Lost Prince of Cardiff’. I lost my horse, broke too many bones in my body than I can count, faced off a massive stinky lizard, saw some crazy magic show, toured on a boat at sea that definitely made me sick, went to another castle and battled a crazy witch lady who apparently was keeping Jake, ahem, my bad, ‘The Royal Prince’ in hiding for the past couple of years.” He paused for a moment to catch his breath.

“But that moment, when my body was flung into the window of his tower and I saw him in his bed, frightened and alone. And I saw those pleading eyes of his…” Nick glanced back at Jake, who was taking everything that he was saying, mesmerized by his speech.

“I knew that he was the one I had to save and bring back to his home.” the knight grinned and looked up at the King and Queen.

“So, I present you, King Aleksander and Queen Kelsey, your Prince Jake Sullivan.” Nick finished, getting down on one knee and motioning his hands towards the prince who shyly stepped forward.

Their eyes widen as they saw their son, lost for 10 years, stepped forward in view. The prince, still shaking from his nerves, looked up at his parents that he’s missed greatly. As they slowly made their way towards each other, the family rushed into an embrace together. Their arms wrapped around their child that they’ve prayed would come home, and his face hurried into their warm hugs that he’d long wanted for.

Watching the family finally as one brought a tear or two to Nick’s eyes. He knew that it was a long painful journey, with the unimaginable obstacles that they faced, but the outcome at the very end of it was perfect enough to make it worth it. Just thinking back to the very beginning brought more tears than intentional to Nick, remembering not only the bravest knight that stuck with him until his last battle but the memorable moments that the trio made. From his first kiss to learning more about himself that he’d never known, Nick grew more than he did any other time through his life. He told himself from the very beginning that he was going to finish his mission, no matter what happened, and he did, proving everyone who doubted him, even himself at a couple of points, wrong. As everything hit him all at once, Nick had to take a deep breath to calm down.

_‘Come on, don’t be so ridiculous about this.’_ he thought as he collected himself.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy to come back into reality since the knight’s vision became blurry. Not from his eyes that were watering up, but from a massive headache that was forming without warning. Weakly putting his hand up to hold up his head once it started to get heavy, Nick knew that he couldn’t stand up for much longer. With one more dizzy glance up, he saw the prince look over at him and shout something but it was mute before his vision turned pitch black.


	15. Chapter 15

He didn’t know how many days have passed but the knight shouldn’t care all too much about it anyway. With his eyes still closed, the tired knight could feel warmth and softness against his face, making him slowly open his eyes. His vision was still blurry but started to clear up once he blinked a couple of times. At first, Nick didn’t recognize the room where he was settled in but as he sat up in the bed he was placed in, he noticed that the area was very decorated with elegance. Taking in everything around him, the worn out knight rubbed his eyes tiredly and slowly got out of the comfortable bed. Still being uneasy, Nick held onto the bed frame to stand up with his sore bones. He took deep breathes to try to calm down as he slowly rose to his feet.

Concentrating deeply, the knight didn’t notice his prince observing him quietly. Jake smiled as he was happy to see his knight in better conditions. Nick took a sharp breath once he felt severe pain shot back through his body as he stepped forward, making him lean unexpectedly and brought his hands out towards the wall to catch himself. 

The prince worriedly gasped and swiftly ran up to help out his lover. Feeling himself getting lifted back a little, Nick slightly opened his eyes to see his prince right by his side, looking up at him with hopeful eyes. They stared at each other as Nick watched his breath.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked, just like before.

Staring into his lover’s eyes brought a smile to the knight’s face.

“I am now,” he replied, making his prince smile in response.

As the two were drawn towards one another, they both leaned in closer to give each other a small passionate kiss. Not wanting to let go, Jake wrapped his arms around the knight’s neck as Nick brought one of his arms around the prince to bring him closer, deepening the kiss. For the first time in his life, Nick finally felt safe with someone who cared and he’d hope to never lose him again.

They slowly separate as they caught their breaths for a moment.

“They, uhm, wanted to meet you officially once you were healed and up for it,” Jake mentioned, biting his lip.

As Nick was not one for talking much, he knew that he had no choice. So he took a deep breath and slowly sighed.

“I suppose that I am since I have no other choice,” Nick confessed, embarrassingly.

Jake couldn’t help but give out a little giggle.

“Don’t worry, they’re going to love you, just like I do.” the prince told Nick, trying to make him feel better as he gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

Instantly feeling his blood rush to his cheeks, Nick blushed once he felt the soft lips of hi’s lovers on his skin. With hand in hand, the two gradually made their way into the halls and towards the main dining area.

He didn’t understand why but the knight was extremely nervous to meet the king and queen again. Even though his speech towards them from before made him look like he knew how to present himself, he felt as if this time it’s going to be a little bit more difficult.

As they turned the corner, Nick’s eyes were scanning all over the decor, covering the walls. He never seen such beauty in one area, let alone been in a glorious castle like this one. As his eyes traveled down, he saw two tall figures facing each other. Once they glancer over in his direction, the knight froze with shocked eyes. He didn’t know what to think or suspect. Slowly guiding him towards them, Jake smiled was still as wide as it could be, with excitement building up.

“Oh Nicholas, we’re pleased to see you in good health now.” said the woman, who was dressed in a long white dress that had rhyme stones alone the next line. Her smile looked too familiar to Jake’s, making the knight’s heart skip a beat. 

The knight’s eyes shifted once the taller man started to talk.

“We still have to thank you properly for all of your hard work.” he continued, just as if he knew it was his turn. He was also dressed in white with gold stitching along the shoulder pads and down towards the sides. 

Nick’s eyes caught the shimmering crowns that were placed just perfect on their heads, making him turn towards Jake who was also wearing a similar crown that was smaller.

Not realizing that he was holding his breath, the knight sighed in relief to let out the stress that his mind was still carrying.

“Oh please, n-no need to thank me. I was just doing… uhh… someones else’s job…” he replied, rubbing his neck embarrassingly and glanced away, unsure how he ended up in the position in the first place.

He felt his hand gently squeezing and glanced up to see his prince look at him in delightfulness. 

“Well, I’m glad it was you who showed up at my window,” Jake commented in a sweet voice that made Nick’s heart leap, making him smile.

“Jacob also mentioned that there was a third one who was with you on the journey.” King Aleksander said, curious about the contents.

Nick couldn’t help but smirk at the name that instantly embarrassed his lover. _‘Jacob…’_

However, he thought back to his brave friend that they lost in battle too soon. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Nick looked back up at the king. 

“Yes, there was one brave knight who fought his last battle with us. His name was Mason and he was probably the most confident knight that I’ve ever seen. He saved my life countless time through that hectic journey.” Nick answered, trying not to show how still heartbroken he was from the loss of his first friend.

The knight saw the expression change on their faces. The truth hardens him too, but he was glad to act least tell part of Mason’s story.

“We’ll have a tribute to the brave knight before the ball started tomorrow night.” Queen Kelsey suggested, making her king nod in agreement.

The one word that stuck out to Nick was _the ball,_ completely clueless of the special occasion.

“Wait…a…what?” he couldn’t process the words right soon enough as he was still baffled. 

The two looked at him as if they were amazed that he never heard of what it was. Jake then gave out an embarrassing giggle to break the awkward silence.

“I’ll catch you up before it comes, don’t worry,” Jake reassured his lover, gently rubbing his arm to make him calmer.

Nick gave out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah… I sure can’t wait.,” he said unconfidently.

—————————————————————————————————-

After the end of the brief conversation with the king and queen, Nick should’ve felt calm and collected but no, his nerves were still through the roof. 

He was not as decent as the rest, let alone knowing how to dance properly. But he was going to a dance, with his prince in front of a million people in the royal castle. No pressure.

Back in his room, the anxious knight laid on the comfortable bed once again, staring up at the ceiling as he collected his thoughts. Fortunately, there weren’t that many coming through, making it easier to relax. He was almost falling asleep until there was a small knock on his door.

Peaking his head up, Nick saw Jake standing at the door frame, making him sit up on the bed. 

“I was just wondering if you wanted to go for a walk with me,” he asked gratefully.

Nick made his way towards his prince and smirked at him.

“I’d love to,” he answered, with their hand together as they walked out of the room.

As they gradually strolled along the hallways and through the castle, the two took their time since they were finally able to do so. Nick would occasionally glance down at the shorter figure and once he met his eyes, Jake would blush bright red, making Nick chuckle a bit.

“So… _Jacob_ was it?” the knight started, teasing the prince and raising an eyebrow at him, giving him a smirk.

Jake giggled and embarrassingly tucked part of his hair to the side.

“Yeah yeah… at least I don’t have a longer name like someone I know, _Nicholas_.” he sassed back, making the knight roll his eyes humorously.

“Alright, I get it.” the knight didn’t push it, even though he was having fun.

As they continued their walk, Nick could tell that Jake was finally at peace with being back at home. He didn’t blame him either, Nick would’ve felt the same if he went…

The thought made him instantly stop in his tracks. Jake glanced up at him, with curious eyes. Following his gaze, he looked up towards the castle as they were standing outside.

Lost in his own thoughts, Nick started to doubt himself. Why was he here in the first place? He didn’t belong in such an exquisite area. He didn’t even know how to dance! Disappointed, he sighed deeply as his eyes shifted downwards to the ground.

Worried, Jake gently placed his hand on the knight’s shoulder to comfort him.

“What’s wrong Nick?” he asked sympathetically.

Nick’s eyes shifted to the side to meet contact with his lover’s eyes. He then cleared his throat to reply.

“I-…It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” he quickly responded, straightening out.

Just as he was about to turn away, the prince grabbed his hand to bring him back towards him. The knight looked back at those eyes.

“Nick… you know you can tell me anything.” Jake reassured him, hoping to help his knight with his problems.

But he just shook his head. “There’s nothing to tell you, Jake. I’m fine” was all he responded with and turned again to walk down the stairs.

Still worrisome, Jake paused for a moment before continuing their walk together. It remained silent for the time being. Jake would occasionally glance up at the distressed knight, and reached out his hand to hold it for comfort. Nick didn’t notice anything around him, he was too caught up in his thoughts and past that popped up in his mind. He should be happy, proud of the accomplishments that he’s achieved through the whole journey but he kept doubting himself for no reason.

_‘What’s wrong with you?! Why can’t you actually be happy for once? You disgusting piece of garbage! You don’t deserve any of this from them. You’re a disgrace! What would your_ pare- _...'_

There were too many thoughts in his head that Nick had to stop walking abruptly. Frustratingly, he put his fists against his forehead to try to make his thoughts clear up.

“Nick?!” now Jake was worried, hurdling towards him closer and reached out his hand to relax the stressed knight.

“Why can’t these damn thoughts just fucking go away already?!” Nick growled at himself, not knowing how loud he was getting with his tone rising.

Even with more concern, Jake’s eyes widen as he slowly stepped back to make room for Nick, who was breathing heavily.

Once everything was quiet again, Nick started to calm down and open his eyes slowly, glancing up to see the petrified prince like before. This completely shocked knight as he straightened up and looked over at the prince apprehensive.

“Jake… I-..” he didn’t know how to start explaining what happened, making him lower his head from disappointment. No one would understand.

But Jake slowly walked towards Nick, lifting his head up to meet his eyes again.

“It’ll be alright Nick, we can get through whatever it is you’re going through together. Just like before,” he told him, with a reassuring smile as he gently stroked the knight’s arm.

He was right, Nick was no longer alone to face his challenges. But how could he explain to them by not having his emotions come through? That didn’t matter all that much right now. He just had to stay calm and collected for the time being. With a deep breath and a long sigh, the knight came closer towards the prince to embrace a tight comfortably hug. Jake didn’t hesitate to his knight back. Feeling him shiver, Jake glanced up to see tears falling down on his lover’s face. But Nick couldn’t stop them, they just kept rolling down as he tried to whip them away. Trying to control his choppy breathing, Nick’s crying built up more before he could even step. Jake rubbed his back as he tried to comfort his knight, seeing how hard he’s dealing with his emotions.

Nick took a breath before it started to get choppy again as he tried to speak.

“Jake, I-… I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” he confessed, breaking down again in his lover’s arms.

This saddens the prince as he knew that there was no real answer to tell his knight.

“There’s nothing wrong with you Nick, don’t be so hard on yourself,” he said calmly, trying to bring the mood up.

But Nick was still in dispart as he knees began to shake and give out, making them both sink to the ground, still holding one another.

“Jake… please don’t hate me once I tell you… okay?” Nick pleaded with a shaky breath.

Unsure of the contents, Jake just nodded gradually.

“I won’t, I promise,” he responded, as they held each other momentarily. 


	16. Chapter 16

_ (warning: sexual intercourse, physical abuse, and rape) _

 

The tour ended shortly afterward as the two started to get tired. Emotionally exhausted, Nick was ready to pass out on his comfortable bed. What would make it more wondrous if his prince was with him. But that would’ve been too much to ask for…

Getting ready, Nick slowly took off his shirt as he was still sore from the battling from the journey. Hissing in pain as he stretched up his arms, the knight was about to collapse down onto the bed until there was another knock on the door. Turning slightly, Nick’s eyes widen as he saw Jake standing in the door frame. He was ready for bed too, with his sleep attire and a pillow tucked under his arm. 

“I was, uhm… just wondering if uh… I could- or.. if you wanted some… company?” the prince nervously asked, glancing down at his bare feet that were touching the cold wood floor.

Without a doubt, Nick had to smile and nodded.

“Of course, come on up,” he replied, making the prince’s face light up as he ran towards the other side of the bed.

Once they were both settled in and cozy enough, the two faced each other, staring into their eyes. 

No words were exchanged, just the soft breathing of them as they were collecting their thoughts. They both knew what they wanted at that very moment but they held themselves back just for a while longer. Jake couldn’t help but squirm in excitement since his true lover was with him, alive and well, sharing the same comfort. Nick grinned as he could tell that Jake was thrilled as if it were a slumber party. Inching in closer, the two were head to head in the already large frame in the middle of the bed. Nick just couldn’t keep his eyes off of his prince, just like in the beginning. He loved him, cared for him, protected him. That's what he had to do to bring him home. Jake, staring deep into his lover’s eyes still couldn't believe that his “knight in shining armor” came sweeping, well crashing, into his window, just like in his dream. The moment he shared eye contact with the knight, he knew that he was going to be okay and come home. And that’s what happened, with many obstacles in the way. So much has happened in that time span, running away from dragons, watching intense battles with witches, meeting adventurous pirates, falling in love, having heart breaks, meeting and making new friends and finally coming home in one piece. 

Jake’s thoughts suddenly paused the past events that were streaming through his mind. With all the positive that came with, there was also the negative. Seeing the world at its end, facing the witch again and revealing his powers. Watching his loved on getting lost at sea, seeing Mason, his best friend getting sliced open. Just revising those images again made the fragile prince wince and shut his eyes. As he still watched Jake’s expression change, Nick hurried to hold the prince closer to him. Jake couldn’t help but let a couple of tears slid down his cheeks as he still saw that painful image in his mind. 

“What’s wrong my prince?” Nick asked, trying to comfort the emotional royal.

Jake sniffled a couple of times before collecting himself.

“I… I miss Mason,” he whispered, afraid of how the knight’s reaction was going to be.

There was a pause before Nick could feel his emotions came through but he stayed still.

“I know… I do too,” he confessed.

His first friend, the first person to recognize his strength and skills and not judge him by any way. Nick sincerely missed his partner in battle. Without him, Nick would’ve lost the quest.

Trying to settle comfortably, the knight glanced down to meet the wet eyes of the prince, who was still trying to control his emotions. Reaching a hand on his cheek to whip away the tears that rolled down, Nick leaned closer as he locked his eyes with the prince’s. Calming down, Jake also gradually leaned up closer to the knight. With their eyes fluttering down to close, Nick and Jake made contact with their lips again, bringing them closer to each other. 

Nick wrapped his arms around the small waist of the prince as Jake brought his hands on his lover’s neck and jawline, placing them gently to bring the knight closer. With their mouths still in contact, their tongues shared a dance with one another, letting out some air in between. The wrapped their legs around each other as the two rocked their bodies against together. Everything was at a slow pace, making them enjoy the flavors that they gave each other. As the heat started to rise, Nick’s fingers wrinkled over the prince’s buttoned shirt and unraveled the clothing to cool him down. Breathing heavily, the prince help Nick by pulling off the shirt once it was all opened and immediately resumed his pace. His fingers looped and got tangled in the knight’s hair but he didn’t mind. Giving the prince one more hard kiss on the lips, Nick’s mouth lowered down to the small neck and began to continue his journey there, placing his soft lip onto the skin. Feeling the immediate sensation, Jake let out a some of his breath and once pressure was applied on the soft spot, a moan escaped from his mouth. He’d never felt anything so exotic in his life. He was never the one for these types of activities but now that he was with the right person, he could finally see why he dreamt of this with the one he loved. On the other hand, Nick knew that he was doing. Even though he’s never been with anyone prior, he just “picked up” on a couple of skills. He wanted to show how much he truly loved the prince and even though there were a million other ways to show affection, this was the perfect time for this kind.

Continuing his journey, Nick’s fingers tricked down toward his lover’s pants and hooked them around the top, slowly pulling them down easily. Jake was becoming squirmish as his excitement caught up with him, making him giggle. Nick couldn’t help but smirk and brought his lips close to the prince’s ear. 

“May I ask you to stay still your majesty?” his voice was soft and comforting, making the prince at ease.

“Yes, sir,” Jake responded in a whisper, smiling to himself.

As the knight slowly resumed, Jake sighed deeply with him laying his head closer to his lover. After removing his pants completely, Nick began to stroke the bare legs, feeling the softness of the prince’s legs. Goosebumps were sent through Jake’s body, making him huddle closer to Nick. The moment as he felt the touch rise higher up to his thigh, the pressure was throbbing inside. Jake inhaled deeply and exhaled gradually.

Nick was indeed getting excited about how well this was going. He could feel his arouse get fired up as his heart was pounding inside with the rest of his body. Taking a calm deep breath to cool himself down, Nick’s hand slowly moved up closer towards the bulge that was formed. Jake’s breath became shaky against Nick’s skin, making him smirk.

“It’ll be alright my dear prince. Just breath.” the knight informed him, quickly following his direction.

Once the prince’s breathing was at a steady pace, the knight’s hand hooked onto the band of the trousers and scooped down into the small opening. The minute that they shared contact again, Jake gasped suddenly closing his eyes shut.

“You okay?” Nick asked, pausing the entire motion. He felt a small head motion nodding back and forth.

“We can stop anytime if you want.” he didn’t want to pressure Jake into anything of this if it was too much for him. If only he knew that when he was younger when…

_‘No, not now.’_ Nick’s thoughts were coming back to him, not a good time at the moment.

“I-I’m fine. I want to finally feel how this is.” Jake responded, partially embarrassed since this was his first time.

It took a moment for Nick to resume his process. But with his consent to continue, Nick slowly touched the prince once again. Softening feeling the touch, Jake took a deep breath before moaning out again. Hearing the soft noises made Nick build up inside of his own. What really got him was when the prince said his name.

“…N-Nick… please.” Jake begged, wanting more which Nick could give him but-…

A sudden image appeared in Nick’s vision before he could do anything about it.

Everything was pitch black but there was echo screaming coming closer. Loud crashes and yelling were heard as well. Once the screaming became louder, a small boy appeared, with red puffy eyes and tears streaming down his face. There was a flash, making it the point of view from the boys perspective. His eyes saw the taller figure, coming closer to the boy with his shadow covering the entire light.

_‘No… No… Stay back.’_ the boy’s thoughts called out but not dear to shout out loud. 

The boy jolted once a giant hand grabbed his small body as he was thrown against the hard floor. His heart was pounding intensively, almost coming out of his chest. Not being able to scurry away in time, the boy was dragged across the floor and was pinned up against the wall nearby.

With his weak body, the boy was unable to move against the force on him. Nervously opening his eyes, he saw the deadly eyes directly staring at him, ready for his punishment. The large hands tore down the boy’s clothing, stopping him down to the core. With his whole body shaking from his nerves and the coldness, the striking pain affected the boy’s skin in sudden bursts. He couldn’t open his eyes, he couldn’t look into the figure’s eyes again. Abruptly he was pushed up against the wall with a giant thrust. And again, more painfully…

And again…

And again…

And -…

Nick’s eyes shot open wide, gasping in fear as he froze suddenly. Unsure what was going on, Nick’s eyes glanced around frantically.

“Nick, Nick! Are you okay darling?!” a voice seemed to be calling out his name. Focusing on the voice more, he realized that it was Jake calling out.

He felt that he was shaking uncontrollably in fear but the warm touch of his lover’s hands against his cheeks started to calm him down. He didn’t even feel the tears that were rolling down his own face. He felt like he was completely frozen. Moving closer to his lover, Nick tried to relax more but his heart was still racing.

“It’s okay Nick. You’re safe, you’re safe with me.” his sweet voice whispered to the alarmed knight, trying to comfort him until they were both falling asleep. 


	17. Chapter 17

_ (Warning: rape, blood, sexual intercourse.) _

 

He didn’t know the nightmares would come back, making him not being able to sleep well again. Slowly opening his droopy eyes, Nick saw everything fuzzy for a moment. Blinking a couple of times to clear his vision, the knight exhaustedly sat up and rubbed his eyes for a second. Feeling his head start to pound, Nick placed his hand on the spot that hurt the most and sighed. This always happened when he had those kinds of nightmares. The past always caught up with him, showing him where he came from. Shaking his head to regain consciousness, the knight glanced around to see that his prince was no longer beside him. Puzzled, the knight looked around the room again and glanced at the bedside table to see a not. Curiously, Nick reached down and gently picked it up to read it.

“I hope you’re feeling better today my sweet knight.”

Nick couldn’t help but grin at the thoughtful kindness. He then flipped over the not to see more writing.

“Don’t forget at noon today, dance lessons ;)” 

His eyes widen. _Dance lessons?! That means… Right, the ball was tonight._

Sighing deeply, the knight placed down the note and casually glanced up at the wooden clock nearby. It was defiantly passed noon. Realizing the time, Nick’s eyes shot open wide as he scurried to get dressed and ready. Clumsily, Nick was having a hard time already. 

_‘Damn it, why did I have to agree to this?!’_ he thought as he was almost done with his chores.

Nick then rushed out the door to try to find the ballroom that the meeting was supposedly going to happen at but there were so many hallways and doors that it confused the knight as he sprinted through the castle. As he slowed down to catch his breath, he noticed a room with double doors and mumbling through them. Taking a deep breath, Nick gradually opened the door just a crack and poked his head through the opening to see if it was the right location.

He saw his prince sitting down elegantly at a table and chairs as he was holding a cup of tea. Apparently, he was talking to a taller figure who was holding some type of instrument. Nervously, Nick swallowed his cowardliness down his throat and took a deep breath as he slid entering the room and quietly walked forward. But with the floors being marble, each step he took echoed, making the two pause their conversation and look up at the embarrassed knight. Jake smirked as he glanced down at his pocket watch.

“You’re late sleepy head,” he said, watching the knight walk forward. 

“I uh… slept in by accident.” was the best excuse Nick could give as he rubbed his neck still embarrassed.

Shaking his head amusingly, the prince stood up and gently placed his tea back on the table before walking up to the knight. 

“Just don’t be late for tonight, okay?” he said, touching his lover’s nose.

“I’ll try not to…” confessed the knight, turning a bit red.

The prince then held onto Nick’s hand and lead him towards the middle of the room. He then faced forward towards him again, gently placing his hands in the correct position as he held his partner as well. Nick could feel his nerves shake but he tried to stay calm as he carefully watched the prince’s motions. He suddenly felt his shoulder get pushed down and his arms move closer in as the prince corrected his form. Jake then turned towards the man with the instrument and nodded to allow him to play, which he did gradually.

“Now, all you have to do is move your feet the opposite way from mine,” informed Jake, looking down at the ground.

Nick also glanced down, seeing Jake’s foot move back. Slowly, he moved his foot forward in the empty space.

“There, it’s just that easy!” Jake excitingly said.

Nick distressed his shoulders a little but was immediately put back in their position. He looked up at his prince, who was smirking at him.

“We’re not done yet, sir. You have to keep that stance through the whole dance.” he corrected.

“The whole time?” Nick baffled with a worried look. Maybe this was harder than he thought.

Jake rose his eyebrow with the smirk still on his face. The knight sighed deeply as he straightened out back in his position.

The lesson then resumed as the soft music continued to play. Nick concentrated hard on the steps that the prince was guiding him through. After a while, the knight was getting the hang of it, at least for beginner. Pleased to see how well it was going, Jake smiled while at his partner. Still focused, Nick gradually looked up at Jake and couldn’t help but blush a little bit more.

“You’re doing really well, I’m impressed,” Jake commented with a big smile.

“Thanks. My teacher is a pretty good one.” Nick replied as he shyly glanced up at him, making him blush.

After a couple of more minutes of choreography, the two stopped their lesson as Jake dismissed the violin player.

“See? It wasn’t too bad.” Jake told Nick, who yawned loudly.

“That’s easy for you to say, your majesty,” Nick replied, smirking at him.

The prince rolled his eyes as he grabbed his lover’s hand and guided him towards the hallways. They both walked together, sided by side, hand in hand as they strolled through the castle. Looking up, Jake noticed that Nick was rubbing his tired eyes to try to stay awake as he yawned again.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night?” questioned the prince with concern.

Nick glanced with his droopy eyes at Jake and let out a sigh.

“I suppose not… again,” he replied, disappointedly.

That made Jake think for a minute to remember what happened last night. They were in bed, the heat was rising once they had their bodies together. He remembered the touch and feel of the sensation. Then, right before they were ready, he saw his knight frozen in fear all of a sudden.

Jake’s brows moved forward as he remembered the scene.

“Was it because you were scared?” he asked, not realizing he hit a trigger.

Nick right away stopped walking and froze. It was true, he was scared, no, terrified. But he didn’t want to admit it, even though he remembered exactly why he couldn’t sleep last night, or any night before then. It was because of the cursed images from his past that kept reappearing in his mind.

Jake was worried that he asked the wrong question. Trying to comfort his knight, he softly rubbed his arm. He didn’t want to stress him anymore.

“I-I’m sorry if I-…” Jake tried to apologize but was taken back as he met eyes with the knight.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault Jake, you didn’t know,” he said with a soft tone as his eyes glanced down.

A minute passed before Nick took a breath to continue.

“I… need to tell you why,” he confessed as shivers going through his spine He hated talking about it, but he might as well if he had to move on.

Still puzzled, Jake looked at his knight before huddling closer towards him. It took them awhile to resume their walk. Jake guided them to the study, a room that was filled with books up to the wall and set furniture for them to sit at. After walking in, Jake closed the door behind them and continued to guide his partner towards the seats. They sat on the red velvet couch that was near the fireplace. A small coffee table was placed in from as well. As they got comfortable with Nick sitting on the right and Jake on the left. Patiently, Jake waited for his lover to collect his thoughts and start his story. It took Nick awhile, as he had to think way back into his disastrous past. With a deep breath, the knight began his story.

“It’s hard to really tell where to start from firstly but I’ll just open it with how far I’ve remembered it from. In the beginning, I wasn't supposed to be born. Once it happened, my…” he had to clear his throat. “The people who… were there weren’t happy about it. I didn't know what was happening then but now that I realized that not only was I neglected, but I was also brutally tortured for months and…” he bit his lip, he couldn’t say the word. But that image popped up again, making him shut his eyes in disgust.

“Eventually, the taller man who was there had blood on his hands as he looked down at the woman who was laying on the ground. I tried to run away, scurrying under the table but he caught me just in time and threw me down on the ground before pinning me against the wall. I couldn’t move as he punched and scrapped me, ripping my tattered clothes off of my body and…” He had to pause, unsure how to continue. 

Nick could feel water fill up in his eyes. He glanced over at Jake, who was also in tears and holding onto his lover’s hand tightly. With a deep breath, Nick continued.

“As my body was burning with the pain from the bruises and scratches. I felt sudden thrusting against the wall. It happened again and again and again and-…” He had to stop, the image was getting too much.

There was a gentle squeeze on his hand as he looked back up at the prince. He was biting his lip as tears were already rolling down his cheeks.

“Did… you ever get out?” he questioned in a quiet voice. Nick took a shaky breath before nodding and continuing his story.

“The moment I saw an opening, I rushed out as fast as I could. Even though my body was already in so much pain, I knew that I just had to keep running. Once I found an area safe enough, I stopped to catch my breath but I couldn’t get enough through my lungs that I passed out. Everything turned black. After a could of hours… or was it days? Anyway, I could finally get feeling back to my senses as I could feel cold raindrops on my skin. Not only was I getting cold, but also hungry and still tired. I tried to move any of my muscles but they just couldn’t function. Even though the rain started to pour, I could feel tears leave my eyes and eventually I was crying nonstop. As I took a couple of short breaths to calm myself, I glanced up to see a… woman in white. No, she was an angel, with other children around her. She slowly walked up to me and the moment she touched my hand as she reached out, I realized that I actually wasn’t dead…”

This brought a smile to Jake’s face until Nick’s expression changed to serious.

“Yet,” he added, making Jake’s smile disappear as he looked at him puzzled. Nick took another breath before continuing.

“Even though I was brought to a ‘safe’ place, I knew that I didn’t belong there. I was bullied immediately, teased, yelled at, and everything else that happened at school when you’re the old one out. I distinctly remember being in a fight with some of the older kids, who were much bigger than me. They beat me and called out name as they laughed. I screamed and cried but there was no help for me. Eventually, these three elders came by and forcefully took me away. I couldn’t do much since I was unjust. The yelling and laughter didn’t stop as they brought me to a church nearby, which meant that I was in deep trouble.” Nick continued to say before Jake interrupted him by accident.

“What were you in trouble for?” he asked, curious but closed his mouth as he realized he interrupted.

But the knight wasn’t upset, he knew that the prince was curious. It took him a minute as he swallowed his fear.

“… For not falling in love.” Nick simply said, looking up at the prince, meeting his eyes and seeing his grow as he couldn’t hide the redness in his cheeks. 

'Why should that be a crime?’ Jake thought as his heart pounded deeper in his chest.

Nick then cleared his throat to resume his story.

“They brought me to a dungeon that was under the church’s floors. It was dark with the only light being from the fire torches. I thrashed my arms and legs to try to get out of their capture but since my body was already so weak, it was only making me more tired. They pinned me against on a metal table nearby and chained me up to hold me down. My screams were never heard as the men continued their preparations, with them firing up a hot pallet. As I struggled to get loose out of the restraints, I glanced over at the steaming metal stick that was coming my way. At this point, I was horrified but there was nothing I could do. Before I knew it, the…” he paused, pressing his hand against his chest on the market spot.

“… the red-hot blazing metal stick burned my skin one it made contact…” Nick stopped, taking a minute to relax his nerves and pounding heart.

At this point, Jake’s eyes were puffy from the tears that kept streaming down his face. He’d never known anyone had to go through this, just because of their attraction towards someone. The prince slowly reached out his hand to place it on his knight’s hand. Nick glanced over to meet the sad eyes, knowing that they wanted to see the mark. With a sigh, Nick grabbed the neck of his shirt and pulled it down to show the evidence. Jake gasped as his eyes widen to see the red symbol on Nick’s chest. The mark was a round circle with a slashed line across it. There was still irritation and redness from the many years of not being taken care of.

This made Jake’s tears being to roll down his face as he looked back at his lover’s eyes, seeing them also form some tears. Right away, the prince threw his arms around Nick, holding him closer than ever. Nick also wrapped his arms around his prince, knowing that he needed this after the stressful story he hated telling others. Jake couldn’t help but cry into his lover’s shoulder as he was heartbroken from the story. Nick risked his life to save him, why couldn’t he have done more for his lover.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” Jake apologized, shutting his eyes as tears continued to stream down his face.

Even though he was distressed, Nick calmly rubbed his partner’s back to comfort him.

“You don’t have to be sorry Jake. It is what it is and it’s in the past now. I’m just so glad to be here, alive, with you right now.” the knight said in a quiet, yet formal tone.

It was true, if he’d hadn’t gone on that quest in the first place or continued it at all, he wouldn't have met the love of his life someone who actually cared and loved him. Holding his prince tighter, Nick couldn’t help but let some of his tears fall as well from holding them in for too long. The two sat in silence as they softly cried in their arms, not wanting to let go. They were safe here, and always together.


	18. Chapter 18

_ (warning: sexual intercourse)  _

Hours passed since they were seated in the study. It took them awhile to collect themselves but they slowly made their way back at into the hallways. It’s been awhile since they last ate a full meal, so they headed to the dining room and kitchen. Nick was astonished to see so many already prepared meals, it even made him a little nervous. When he was growing up, it could’ve been days since he got a meal, let alone just a nibble to eat at that. But seeing that food was already prepared took him back a little. Jake couldn’t help but get excited over the knight’s reaction, it was too cute. Leading them both towards the kitchen counters, Nick glanced around at the environment while Jake collected some ingredients nearby to make their meal.

Curiously, Nick watched as the prince gathered up the necessary items and placed them on the counter in front of them. Just as the knight was about to reach out to one of the food items, he was immediately stopped on the wrist by his lover, who was shaking their head and finger.

“Not yet silly,” he told the stubborn knight, who sighed and crossed his arms, glaring away.

As Jake organized his working space, he proudly looked up at Nick who was staring off at something disinterestedly. With a hard nudge, the knight snapped back into reality.

“Alright, now it’s your turn,” Jake informed, stepping back a little.

Nick’s eyes narrowed in confusion as he glanced at Jake and the food. But once he got the picture, his eyes widen as he put up his hands defensively.

“Uh, no… I don’t even know how to cook,” he confessed, hoping to back out. But it wasn’t that easy.

“Then I’ll help you. Come on, it’ll be fun!” Jake told him, reaching out and pulling him closer towards the middle.

Embarrassed, Nick stood dumbfounded in the middle as he looked at the ingredients that were in from to him, unsure of what to do. He glanced at Jake to give him a sympathetic look. Rolling his eyes, Jake gave in and walked closer towards the knight. As he stood behind him, he slowly reached out his hands to grab the knight’s, making him blush from the contact. 

Now guiding his hands, Nick watched as Jake grabbed a piece of vegetables and a large knight that made Nick’s eyes grow from nervousness.

“Uhhh… you sure that this is safe?” he questioned tensely.

Jake rose an eyebrow. “Says the one who fought off a dragon,” he commented.

Nick rolled his eyes amusingly and sighed. “Alright, fine.” 

Jake resumed his task as he carefully held the vegetables with one of Nick’s hands to keep it steady and cut it through with the knife in the other hands. Seeing how easy it was becoming, Nick glanced over at his lover who also looked over at him with a smile.

“See? Not too hard.” Jake pointed, making Nick at ease.

“I guess.” the knight replied, glancing back down at the progress.

Noticing the scars on Nick’s hands, Jake moved one of the knight’s hands towards it.

“What happened there?” he asked, making the knight glance over at the scar.

“Oh, I was making a sword and got distracted, making me lose focus, resulting in cutting myself,” he said as if it was no big deal.

Jake had to let out a giggle.

“So you can make swords but not a meal?” the prince commented, holding his laughter.

Nick had to roll his eyes. “I’m more skilled in other categories than most,” he replied.

Now laughing a little more, Jake smirked, still eyeing the food they were preparing.

“Hmm, what other categories, if I may ask?” Jake wondered, curious about the answer.

Nick caught on and smirked as well as he still looked at the cut up food.

“Well… there are physical skills, such as fighting techniques. Medical, so I can patch myself up if need be. Also, common sense that supposedly not many people in the world have.” Nick explained, making the prince giggle.

“Let's see… what else…” Nick pondered as he slowly moved his hands down towards his side. Jake was too distracted to notice the hands on his waist. 

“I can list off some skills that you’re not good at.” the prince commented sassily with a smirk

The knight scoffed as he shook his head.

“Be my guest,” he said, not worried at all since it was humorous to him.

“Firstly, your dancing needs a little bit more work before tonight.” Jake pointed out, making Nick rolls his eyes.

“Also… even though it’s improved immensely, your attitude,” he said, with emphasis on the word. 

Nick glared at the prince but he knew that it was true.

“Alright Prince of Effrontery,” he commented.

Once he had a good grip on his lover’s hips, Nick quickly spun him around that he was in between the table and the knight that was directly looking at him. Jake, unexpected from the trick, laughed from the enjoyment and blushed hard in the cheeks.

“How about I show you my other skills too,” Nick whispered to his lover, turning him redder.

Jake couldn’t stop giggling but as he willingly nodded his head, that’s when Nick slowly started the process. Bringing his lips towards his lover’s neck, he placed them on the soft skin. Feeling the pressure on his neck, Jake took a deep breath to calm himself. He could already feel his heart pounding, making his breath go slowly. Nick brought his hips closer towards his partner’s body as he placed another kiss on the same spot on his neck, this time a little harder. Jake suddenly gasped quietly as he held onto the counter to stand still. Nick gradually moved his hands around the small waist, holding him closer without removing his lips from the spot that they were attached to. Jake could feel his body dissent as his lover was hitting the pressure points, but shakily he was being held up against the knight. Bringing his head back to expose more skin on his neck, Jake couldn’t hold his moans, letting them slip out. Seeing the perfect opportunity, Nick’s lips traveled up towards his lover’s skin. Feeling the pressure again, Jake tried his best to keep quiet as he bit his lip and shut his eyes closed. Taking a breather, Nick glanced up at his prince and smirked widely, seeing how enjoyable they were both feeling. He then leaned in again and gently pressed his lips to his lover’s. Just as Jake could feel his tongue getting rolled around with his lover’s, there was a small noise indicating that a door nearby was opening, making the prince’s eyes widen.

“Your majesty, your mother would like you to meet her in the throne room before the preparations are made for tonight.” one of the servants explained as he walked in, looking up and seeing the knight and prince scanning over the ingredients that were still in front of them. 

They both glanced up as if nothing else happened.

“Oh okay, I’ll be right over. Thank you!” Jake happily responded before glancing at his boyfriend.

“Time to do my job.” he uninterestedly said, with a sigh. He felt a soft touch from the knight’s hand on his cheek.

“You’ll be fine,” he reassured him, making the prince smile again.

With a quick kiss on the lips, the prince quickly made his way out of the kitchen. Nick slowly followed and turned towards the servant. 

“What time is the party?” he asked from curiosity.

“At 6 o’clock sir.” informed the servant.

With a quick glance at the clock, Nick sighed as he saw that it was already passed 5.

“Alright, better to mentally prepare myself then,” Nick said to himself as he made his way down the halls, but the opposite direction where Jake was going, to settle in his own room.

Once he got there, the knight noticed that there was an outfit, already planned laying on the bed. Puzzled, Nick walked up towards it to examine the pieces. The jacket was a dark blue with golden buttons on it, while the plain collard shirt was white. Next to it was solid black pants and a pair of clean-cut loafers. He was quite impressed and a little bit embarrassed to be this honored. Taking a deep breath, Nick gathered his clothes and headed into the small bathroom that was attached to his room to get ready for the ball tonight. 

Was he still nervous about it? absolutely. 


	19. Chapter 19

After getting cleaned up and ready, Nick was standing in front of the mirror as he examined himself in his new attire. He didn’t know how to feel, it was neither uncomfortable or delighted. He was just there, in the royal clothing that someone else should be wearing. He sighed, shaking his head as he was still confused with his thoughts that won't stop spinning in his head. Gradually sitting down on the bed, Nick hoped to try to relax for awhile before he had to go out and humiliate himself inferno to millions of people.

But that shouldn’t matter to him since he finally got what he always wanted. Acceptance. That brought a smile to the knight’s face.

_‘Maybe this isn’t so bad.’_ he thought to himself.

That gave him an idea. He wanted to thank Jake and the queen and king for their gratitude and hospitality, but how can one show that if they have nothing to give?

As he pondered, Nick rose from the bed to look around the room, just by curiosity. The settlement brought charm and a warm welcome to anyone who was visiting. The knight would’ve never thought that he would be staying in such a luxury hostel. The artwork and adornments were placed perfectly. Noticing how serene and pitiful the taste of the room was, Nick felt incredibly noble to be in the presence of the royals. 

A knock on the door stopped the knight’s mini exploration of his room. Quickly turning his head, he noticed another servant, a tiny woman in a classy outfit.

“Sorry to startle you sir, but I came here to inform you that the Royal Ball will be starting in 15 minutes,” she told the knight, who smiled courteously.

“Thank you, I’ll be on my way,” he replied, making the servant bow to him and left him in his space.

Before he departed from his room, Nick took one more glance in the mirror to take a deep breath, trying to make his anxiety at ease.

_‘Here goes nothing…’_ he thought and walked out towards the hallways.

With every step he took towards his destination, Nick felt his nerves rise more and more. He couldn’t help it, this was a once in a lifetime event that he was heading to. Suddenly, Nick halted in his tracks as he remembered what they planned before the Ball.

_ “We’ll have a tribute to the brave knight before the Ball starts tomorrow night.”  _

_‘That’s right… the memorial…’_ the knight thought to himself, being hit with instant regret. 

As he took a deep breath once again, he continued his path towards the place he was informed to go to the gathering.

————————————————————————————————-

The moment that his eyes saw a small church outside of the castle, he felt his depression come back instantly. The last time he’s ever been in a church-like building was when he got his mark that was engraved on his chest, shaming him for the rest of his life. But this time it was different, even though it was still hard for Nick to move forward.

As he entered the open arch of the dark church, the knight noticed warm lighting by the candles that were placed on the aisle. Chills went through Nick’s body as he glanced around the small area. Luckily, not many people were around but once his eyes moved forward, he saw a small figure wearing a dark cloak with the hood up. Those eyes, those sentimental eyes that the knight tried to help change in many situations where looking directly at him. How could he make those eyes happy again if he couldn’t even bring back what made them both happy in the first place? 

With a deep sigh, Nick gently kneeled down infant of the podium. A shrine was placed nearby, with the brave knight’s sword and armor that Jake and Nick kept after the tragedy. The room was silent, with the occasional quiet cries that came from the prince. Even though he wasn’t making noises, tears rolled down Nick’s face as he kept his eyes closed. Whether or not if he was sending out a prayer, Nick just stayed up as he tried to calm his emotions. But as the memories of his dear friend showed up in his mind, Nick had to break down in silence. 


	20. Chapter 20

With the day ending soon and the night just beginning, more and more people started to arrive at the castle for the Royal Ball. Still trying to stay calm, Nick slowly made his way back to the ballroom from afar. He was not good in crowds, especially in ones he knew he didn’t belong to. Glancing around, he could see the jewels and more formal attire that the couples were wearing. The couples being men and women only, older and younger pairs. That only made the knight’s anxiety rise immensity, since he was the odd one out, like always.

Once he gradually entered the ballroom, his eyes were enlarged by how graceful and appealing the area was shown. Silver and gold ribbons were wrapped around the marble poles that were on the sides, holding the room together. The tiles on the ground were in a glossy brown wood. There was a polished band playing nearby. As he glanced at the scenery, The knight’s eyes immediately stopped towards the very back of the room, where the love of his life was sitting with the king and queen. Mesmerize, Nick’s feet automatically moved him forward to his destination.

As his eyes scanned the room, Jake also started to feel nervous. _‘What if he bailed? He wouldn’t do that, would he? He’s probably late… especially with all of these people around.’_ the prince’s mind was filling up with questions and scenarios. but he stayed still, just in case.

A gentle touch was placed on the prince’s hand, startling him a little. Turning his head, he relaxed as he saw his mother smoking warmly.

“It’s okay Jacob, no need to be nervous.” she softly told her son, to hopefully calm him down.

A smile formed as Jake took a deep breath and nodded as he gained some confidence.

“Besides, you wouldn’t want your partner to wait any longer would you?” his father suggested.

Raiding an eyebrow, Jake followed the gaze towards the front and seeing his charming knight kneeling down on one knee. Noticing how grand and… just so handsome that his lover was suddenly astonished the prince as he gasped in awe. He just couldn’t stop looking at his knight, making him blush red. Quietly learning his throat, Nick prepared himself to ask the question.

“Prince Jake, may I ask you to dance, with me?” he asked, so properly that Jake just couldn’t turn away.

He glanced at his parents for a moment for their approval. Their smiles widen as they both nodded, letting their son go into good hands that they can trust. 

The smiles that Jake was hiding finally appeared once he was approved. Looking back at the knight who was still in his place, keeping his eyes on the prince and trying not to get too nervous. 

Without waiting any more precious time, Jake excitingly jumped out of his seat and grabbed his lover’s hand. 

“I would love to my sweet knight!” he replied before hurting off towards the floor, bringing along the stumbling knight.

As they made their way through the crowd, Nick held onto his lover’s hand to hopefully not lose him in the sea of people. When he glanced up, many eyes were glancing down at him. making him shyly turn red with embarrassment.

Once they were out of the maze of people and to a clear spot for them to dance together peacefully, Jake turned to face his knight, who was still nervously glancing around. But the gentle touch on his face brought his face back towards his true love who was showing that beautiful smile. Nick had to smile as well, happy to be back with his prince that brought him love and peace. 

The moment Jake placed his arm in the proper stance, Nick slowly followed suit as he tried not to mess up and make a fool out of himself. But as he looked up and saw Jake smile wide. Nick’s heart leaped, excited to actually be with his prince on this special occasion. Sure there were confused and upset glances towards that two but none of that mattered since they were in their own little world.

With the music shifting the tempo, Jake and Nick started their dance together. Even though Nick had just one dance lesson, Jake was pretty impressed to see how well his knight was handling it now. Without them splitting eye contact, the two danced as one thought the whole song. As the song came to an end, they both stopped in place but still stared deeply into each other’s eyes. There was commotion amongst the people but that didn’t fright the two as they continued to smile deeply.

“I’m impressed by your dancing skills tonight. You must have an excellent dance teacher.” Jake commented, trying to hide his giggles.

“Only the best,” Nick replied, his smile widen as he leaned in to kiss his prince’s lips that he missed dearly.

Responding, Jake kissed back gently, moving closer towards his knight as his arms wrapped around his neck.

An abrupt gasp was heard nearby causing the two to pause their romance and glance towards an aggravated civilian. She was an older woman in purple with disgust on her face.

“How dare someone from the Royal Family show such sin in the castle! You two should be ashamed of yourselves for being in public like this!” she screamed in antipathy. 

The two just looked at her puzzled but the prince had an idea that brought a smirk to his face. 

“Well I’m the Prince of Cardiff and I say if you have a problem with my boyfriend and I being in public in _my_ castle, then you can just walk away grandma! There’s the door!” he confidently told off the lady, pointing towards the closest door.

Nick couldn’t help but chuckle that grew into a laugh as the elder lady’s expression change to shock. As she turned her head sharply and stomped away, the two shared a glance and laughed out loud together again.

“They don’t call me ‘Prince Sassy’ for nothing!” Jake proudly commented.

Still laughing, Nick looked over at his prince and smirked at him before wrapping his arms around him and leaning him down at an angle towards the floor, with them still hearing eye contact. 

“And that’s what I love about you.” Nick complimented his prince before kissing him again, still holding him in his arms.

Jake automatically kissed him back, bringing his hands up to his lover’s cheeks to feel the warmth and melted in the sensation.

They didn’t care if people saw them, they were finally happy together. Even though to took them awhile for them to find each other’s feelings, their journey as one brought them closer than anything else. In the end, they eventually found their missing piece. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm planning on making one more chapter, just for a bonus. But I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed making this story! It took 2 and a half notebooks to write (it really did) and even though there might be some spelling mistakes (my bad...), I hope you all liked reading the story! Thanks! ^_^ <3


	21. Bonus Chapter

_ (warning: sexual intercourse) _

As the night started to get longer, the two eventually sneaked their way out of the crowd and back upstairs to their own party. Trying to control their laughter, Nick and Jake stopped once they got to the top of the stairs to catch their breaths from their excitement. Glancing over at his gorgeous prince, Nick walked up closer towards him, making him back up against the wall in surprise. Just looking into those eyes again made Nick’s heart melt into the ground. How did he end up so lucky to be with someone such as the Prince? He would’ve never understood but maybe that’s the point. To just let things happen for once and not think too much. Meeting knight’s eyes made Jake blush bright red as he quickly turned away. Why was he so embarrassed by this? Maybe because he was still figuring out if this really was a dream or no. As he felt the soft touch of those gentle hands of his rescuer, the prince blushed even more with a smile forming on his face.

“What’s wrong my sweet prince? Why are you so embarrassed?” Nick asked in a calm tone that eased the prince’s beating heart.

“I’m… I’m not…” he tried to hide it but his smile didn’t fool his knight.

Nick’s smirk widens as he leaned closer, gently pressing his body against the smaller figure.

“No need to hide it. You know I love you,” he whispered, trying to relax his lover.

That only made Jake blush even more. Once he felt those tender lips on his skin again, every muscle in his fragile body became tighter as if he was floating. The next spot he felt on his neck suddenly sent sparks through his body, making him almost melt to the floor. The pressure against it made Jake suck in his breath as he tried to hold it in, worried that he would make too much noise. But as those lips parted from the skin, Jake couldn’t help but let out a hopeful sigh, bringing him down to earth again.

The moment that they both heard voices from downstairs echo louder towards the pair, the knight slowly straightened up, looking at that direction worried. Jake then gently grabbed his hands, making Nick turn towards him.

“Follow me,” the prince whispered with a wink and started to lead them both quietly towards his room. 

Luckily his room wasn’t too far, but Nick couldn’t hold it much longer as he wrapped his arms around his prince’s waist, bringing his body closer. As Jake was unlocking his door, he had to roll his eyes and glanced towards the mischievous knight.

“Look like someone is in a hurry,” he commented, giving a little smirk as he finally unlocked the door.

The moment the door clicked open was when Nick made his move and Jake knew it too. Jake turned around quickly and their mouth met each other again, never splitting as they made their way into the dark room. The prince didn’t bother turning on the lights since they were not needed. Shutting the door being him, Nick leaned back against it as Jake wrapped his arms around his lover’s neck. He also jumped up to wrap his legs around Nick’s waist, making the knight being able to lift him up in his arms. With the prince being so lightweight, Nick was able to hold him with one arm as he quickly turned the lock on the door behind.

Their lips still didn’t separate as they were melted into the warm sensation. As Jake still held onto his knight, Nick slowly maneuvered forward towards the large bed that was in the middle of the room. Once he felt the edge of the frame, the knight gently laid his prince down onto the soft cushions. 

Already feeling the heat start to rise, Nick swiftly took his jacket and shirt off and resumed his position on Jake, who was breathing quickly. Feeling the soft lips on his skin once again made Jake’s heart race as his chest rose up and down frequently. Nick’s arms slithered onto the prince’s shirt and started to unbutton. With the cold air touching his warm skin, Jake let out a sigh of relief, satisfied with the temperature. Glancing up, he caught a glimpse of his lover’s face, looking down at him with a smile.

“What is it?” Jake asked softly, curious about his lover’s reaction.

“You’re just… so beautiful.” Nick told him truthfully, still amazed to see this wonderful human being in his arms.

Jake slightly turned his head towards the side as his cheeks turned red but his head was turned back towards the front again. 

“Never be embarrassed about that Jake.” the knight told him, making the prince blush even harder.

He gently reached up towards the face that was staring at him and softly stroked his cheek, moving behind the ear making his lover melt into his hand.

“Guess I found your weak spot,” Jake commented quietly. 

His knight slowly opened his eyes and gave his prince a smirk before leaning in and kissing his neck again, making the prince close his eyes, drifting off to a dreamy sensation. Nick dug deeper into the soft skin, making it show that this was him. Jake allowed it as his voice let out a breathless moan, sinking deep into the bed more. Traveling downwards, Nick’s mouth connected to the prince’s chest. As his hands slowly moved up against his hips, holding him against the bed. Already feeling himself grow, Nick grind his pelvis up against Jake’s legs that were dangling over the edge of the bed. Nick’s mouth continued it’s journey towards the abdomen, sending chills through Jake’s body. Taking a shaky breath, Jake moaned out again, this time trembling. Feeling this much all at once excited the prince, he was finally comfortable enough to share his body with the one he trusts the most. And Nick had the honor of that role. With not only saving the prince from his tower but also from his own past that he can finally forget since he was starting a new future with the love of his life.

Taking a deep breath, Nick started to climb up onto the bed as Jake moved up forward towards the middle to make more room. Now hovering over the prince, Nick slowly reached his hand under Jake’s body and against his back softly. Jake reached up to Nick’s cheeks and kissed his lips again, deeper and meaningful. Not that the other kisses weren’t that, this one just felt more… more. Nick gently lowered his body down onto Jake’s, but still supported it up so he couldn’t hurt Jake in any way. Once they felt their almost naked bodies touch each other, they were melting. Taking another breath, the two stayed up as they panted from the heat. Once as Nick’s pelvis gently touched Jake’s the throbbing inside deepened. With a gasp, Jake looked straight back at Nick, their eyes were both in shock, yet wonder, deciding on whether or not to move forward with their episode. 

Biting his lip, Jake gave a nervous look to Nick, who was patiently waiting for his partner. 

“We don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” Nick informed his prince, not wanting to push it too far without his consent.

Jake glanced towards the side, trying to think of how to respond. 

“I…do. It’s just, I don’t want you to, you know… get scared again.” he confessed, looking towards the side, embarrassingly.

His head was slowly turned back towards his knight, who looked at him with hopeful eyes.

“I’m not scared anymore Jake, especially not with you,” Nick confessed in all honestly, giving him a smile.

Hearing that surprisingly also brought a smile to Jake’s face. Excitingly, Jake brought his hands moved behind his lover’s head and moved him down into another deep kiss. The knight kissed back as his body continued to slowly press forward against Jake’s. As their tongues resulted against one another, the prince could feel himself thrive for more.

“Nick… Please.” he breathlessly whispered.

“I… want… I want you Nick.” the princes pleaded.

“I want you too, Jake, so fucking much,” Nick responded quietly.

Feeling more of the pressure that was building up inside of him, Nick took a deep breath to calm down even though he was also excited to move forward with their scene, The next words that came out of Jake’s mouth was the key to start.

“Then take me,” he whispered willingly.

Hearing those words made Nick instantly prepared himself as he quickly took off the prince’s pants, sliding them down to his knees. Sitting straight up, Jake helps his partner as he started to unbuckle his pants as well. They both scurried as they could feel their hearts beat fast. Their breathing was quick and heavy, they were both ready for this now.

Once they were fully exposed, Nick slowly leaned closer towards his prince. His hand gradually moved up towards his thigh and to his pelvis. Jake’s breath was shaking again but he tried to stay calm. Moving his hips closer, Nick slowly brought his own against Jake’s. They toughed again, making Jake gasp quietly, closing his eyes in pleasure. He was throbbing, Nick could tell from his own. He moved his hands towards the prince’s thighs to spread them gently, hoping not to hurt him. Once he noticed an opening, he lowered his pelvis closer to gradually move inside. He took his time to ease into Jake since this was his first time.

“Just breath.” the knight told his prince, who was whimpering, trying to control his nerves.

The moment when Jake could feel the tightness inside of him, he gasped but shut his eyes closed. He wasn’t scared or worried, he just didn’t expect it. Feeling Nick’s throbbing inside made Jake moan as he was starting to love this new touch.

“Nick…” he softly whispered, making his lover smile. 

A slow thrust was against the prince’s body, making him gasped again as he held onto his knight’s body tightly. He wanted to ease into this paint, to be more comfortable with his lover. Another thrust was applied, and another, occasionally it was ongoing. Feeling himself build up inside made Jake breath out slowly. As Nick’s hand moved up towards Jake’s member, he began to stroke it gently. The prince’s body temperature was on fire now. So much was happening all of a sudden, but he loved every moment of it.

Feeling his member grow, Nick tried to hold his strength in but it was getting a lot to handle. Jake could feel the throbbing inside as well. 

“Jake…” Nick spoke with little breathing.

“Please Nick, I want you,” Jake whispered without realizing it, but he knew that he wanted something.

Suddenly feeling a burst, Nick released into Jake, making them both moan out loud. Exhausted, Nick slowly pulled out of Jake and collapsed next to him. They both laid together as they caught their breaths. Jake turned his head towards his lover and snuggled near to him. Nick automatically wrapped his arms around his prince, holding him closely.

“Thank you, Nick. I loved it.” Jake whispered, with a smile on his face as he slowly closed his eyes.

“I love you.” he continued before drifting off to sleep.

“I love you too Jake, forever and always,” Nick replied, also falling asleep.

The two slept peacefully in their arms, not wanting to let go. This defiantly brought them closer to one another, so that no one could tear them apart again. They were finally as one whole. 


End file.
